Potential of Cyanobacterial Biomass as an Animal Feed

Increasing demand of poultry, livestock, and their derived products puts additional pressure on the agriculture sector. Major components of conventional animal meal stuff are corn and soybean, which also increase the competition for human food. Therefore, the usage of such kind of components in animal feed is unsustainable and requires a viable alternative. Selected cyanobacteria and microalgae could be suitable sources of animal feed due to their promising metabolites such as lipids, carbohydrates, proteins, pigments, and their derived products. Other secondary metabolites astaxanthin, lutein, β-carotene, chlorophyll, phycobilins, polyunsaturated fatty acids, and β-1,3-glucan have also shown a great potential in poultry, livestock, and aquaculture field. The replacement of corn, soybean, and other foods with microalgae could be an economically reliable alternative due to their lower production cost and multiproduct biorefinery. Although microalgae are very promising, there are certain challenges that need to be considered such as contamination risks in open pond cultivation, nutrient availability, poor penetration of light, and optimum temperature.