Calorific Value of Cereals and Cereal by-products in Growing Male Broilers

An experiment was conducted to determine apparent metabolizable energy corrected for nitrogen (AMEn) of commonly used cereals and cereal by-products in poultry diet. The 3 samples of each of corn, rice broken (RB), rice polishings (RP) and wheat bran (WB) were assayed for AMEn by substitution method using 21-days-old broilers. The 12 experimental diets (4 ingredients x 3 samples) were formulated by substituting the corn-soybean meal basal diet with 30 % test ingredients. The acid insoluble ash was added at 1 % of all diets. The 468 day-old male broiler chicks (Hubbard x Hubbard) were reared on basal diet from day 1 to 13 and thereafter experimental diets were offered ad libitum to birds from 14 to 21days. Each diet was offered to 36 birds, equally distributed to six replicate pens. The basal diet continued to feed the birds of 6 replicates from day 14 to 21. The excreta samples were collected for 3 days, day 19-21 and AMEn was calculated. The average daily feed intake (ADFI), average daily gain (ADG) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were calculated from 14-21 days of age. Data regarding ADFI, ADG, FCR and AMEn were analyzed using GLM procedures of SAS while means were partitioned by t-test. The ADFI, ADG, FCR and AMEn remained unaltered (P>0.05) by feeding diets based on samples of same feed ingredient except the RP and WB. The birds fed RP and WB based diets showed varying (P<0.05) AMEn between the samples. The birds fed corn substituted basal diet had higher (P<0.05) ADG (56.03 g) followed by RB (50.04 g), WB (45.87 g) and RP (43.61 g) diets. The ADFI of broilers was highest (P<0.05) fed corn diets while it was lowermost with RB based diets. The birds showe