Available Carbohydrate in Cassava Meal Determined by Chick Bioassay

Abstract

Three 2-week chick growth assays were conducted to determine me available carbohydrate content of peeled (PCASS) and non-peeled (NPCASS) cassava and soybean oil (SBOM) meals. Chicks were fed a carbohydrate-free, pre-experimental diet containing soybean oil as the sole source of nonprotein energy for 7 days. From 8 to 21 days, chicks of uniform weight were fed small quantities of the test ingredients at two levels. Weight gain of chicks at the end of each experiment was used in estimating the amount of available carbohydrate (CHO) from the standard glucose curve.In all studies, significant (P<.05) linear regression of chick weight gain on glucose levels was obtained. The regression relationship was expressed as Ŷ = a + bX, where a, b are constants, Ŷ is the estimated weight gain, and X the corresponding amount of glucose measured as log10 (1 + g glucose/g soybean fatty acids).From die studies, the mean estimated available carbohydrate values for NPCASS, PCASS, and SBOM were 83.8, 92.4, and 32.31%, respectively, suggesting that almost all the carbohydrate in the PCASS and 94 and 96% of that in the NPCASS and SBOM, respectively, was available.