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Nutritional value of diets containing graded levels of wheat distillers grains with solubles fed to broiler chicks
Author(s) -
Thacker Philip A,
Widyaratne Gemunu P
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of the science of food and agriculture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1097-0010
pISSN - 0022-5142
DOI - 10.1002/jsfa.2871
Subject(s) - broiler , feed conversion ratio , soybean meal , dry matter , distillers grains , food science , nutrient , weight gain , meal , animal feed , biology , zoology , chemistry , agronomy , body weight , raw material , ecology , endocrinology
This feeding trial was conducted to determine the effects of graded levels of wheat distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) on nutrient digestibility and performance when fed to broiler chicks. A total of 125, day‐old, male broiler chicks (52.8 ± 0.6 g) were fed wheat/soybean meal‐based diets containing 0, 5, 10, 15 or 20% wheat DDGS. There were five birds per pen and five replicate pens per treatment. Digestibility coefficients for dry matter (P = 0.001), energy (P = 0.001) and phosphorus (P = 0.001) declined in a linear manner with increasing levels of wheat DDGS in the diet. Despite the lower digestibility of nutrients in diets containing wheat DDGS, there were no significant differences in weight gain (P = 0.721), feed intake (P = 0.748) or feed conversion (P = 0.766) due to the incorporation of wheat DDGS in the diet, although weight gain and feed conversion showed a tendency to decline at the highest inclusion level (20%) in the diet. The overall results of this study indicate that wheat DDGS can be successfully incorporated into diets fed to broiler chicks. Potential detrimental factors contained in wheat DDGS, including a low energy and low lysine content, can be compensated for in diet formulation. Therefore, when the price of alternative feed ingredients dictates, wheat DDGS can be incorporated into diets at levels as high as 15% without detrimental effects on broiler performance. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry