A peer-reviewed study published in December 2026 in Poultry Science (Volume 105, Issue 12) evaluates how lupin and faba bean affect growth performance and nutrient digestibility when incorporated into starter diets for broilers.

The authors — Obright Hamungalu, M. Reza Abdolphi, Patrick C.H. Morel, Sonia Liu and Timothy J. Wester — targeted the earliest and most feed-sensitive phase of broiler production, the starter period, when diet composition has outsized influence on lifetime performance.

Why do grain legumes matter at the feed mill?

Lupin and faba bean are protein-rich legumes that feed formulators have eyed as partial substitutes for imported protein ingredients such as soybean meal. Their adoption has historically hinged on two questions the study addresses directly: whether young birds can maintain growth when the ingredients replace conventional protein sources, and whether nutrient digestibility holds at the starter stage, when the digestive tract is still maturing.

For poultry veterinarians and nutritionists advising integration clients, the stakes are concrete. A starter diet that depresses early weight gain or reduces digestibility can compound through the grow-out cycle, affecting flock uniformity, feed conversion and the timing of market weights. Any ingredient decision made in the first week therefore carries consequences that reach the processing plant.

What did the researchers examine?

The study, published December 2026, reports two outcome families:

• Growth performance in broilers fed starter diets containing lupin and faba bean
• Nutrient digestibility of those same diets

By pairing performance data with digestibility measurements, the design allows readers to distinguish between ingredients that simply reduce intake and those that genuinely impair the bird's capacity to extract nutrients — a distinction that changes whether the fix lies in formulation or in inclusion-rate limits.

The full methodology, inclusion levels, bird numbers and statistical results appear in Poultry Science, Volume 105, Issue 12, the official journal of the Poultry Science Association.

Food-animal and practice-level implications

For the poultry sector, this work sits within a broader push to diversify protein sources in broiler feed, a cost pressure point for integrators across major producing regions. If the December 2026 findings support lupin and faba bean at starter-phase inclusion, nutritionists gain evidence-backed flexibility in ration design; if they show digestibility penalties, the study helps define where these legumes fit better — in grower or finisher diets rather than the starter phase.

For veterinarians in broiler health programs, the relevance is indirect but real: starter-phase nutrition interacts with enteric health, litter quality and subsequent coccidiosis and necrotic enteritis risk. Ingredient work of this type feeds the evidence base for whole-flock health planning.

No companion-animal or direct public-health implications arise from this study; its scope is confined to food-animal nutrition.

Practitioners and feed advisors seeking the specific digestibility coefficients and performance figures should consult the paper directly, as the published tables carry the quantitative detail needed for ration decisions.