Yellow Passion Fruit Seed Meal (Passiflora edulis f. flavicarpa) as a Feed Ingredient for Fattening Steers: Effects on Intake, Weight Gain, In Vitro Fermentation and Feed Cost.

The use of fruit by-products in animal feed can reduce costs and competition between human and animal feed. This study evaluated the effect of dietary inclusion of yellow passion fruit (Passiflora edulis f. flavicarpa) seed meal (PSM) on growth performance, in vitro fermentation, and feed costs in beef steers. A total of 36 steers (Bos indicus; initial BW 416 ± 30 kg) were randomly assigned to three treatments: a control diet (CON) and diets containing 5 or 10% PSM for 45 days. Feed intake and average daily gain (ADG) were measured. An in vitro fermentation assay evaluated gas production and pH changes. Steers fed with 5% and 10% PSM showed numerically higher group-level fresh matter intake (1.10% and 9.34%, respectively), and significantly greater ADG over the entire trial (p = 0.00015) compared to CON. In addition, diets containing 10% PSM produced the highest cumulative gas (17.00 ± 1.00 mL vs. 10.00 ± 1.00 mL for CON and 10.33 ± 2.52 mL for 5% PSM; p = 0.003), indicating high fermentability. Feed cost was reduced by 57% and 46% when using diets containing 5% and 10% PSM, respectively. In conclusion, this study reveals that dietary inclusion of up to 10% PSM improves feed intake and growth performance in steers while reducing feed costs, supporting its value as a sustainable feed ingredient for beef cattle.