Metabolisable energy values of some non-conventional feeding ingredients in poultry diets

Abstract

A metabolism trial was designed to evaluate dietary energy values (AME, AMEn, TME, TMEn) of eight readily available non-conventional feeding ingredients viz: cassava root meal (CRM); cassava leaf meal (CLM), mango leaf meal (MLM), shrimp waste meal (SWM), full-fat soyabean (FFSB), palm oil sludge (POS), corn cob (CC), and sawdust (SD), as influenced by type of basal diets (low or high protein maize-containing diets, LPM & HPM; and low or high protein cassava root and leaf meal containing diets LPC & HPC) and level of inclusion of some of the test materials. Twenty-eight (28) experimental diets resulted from the four basal diets and eight test ingredients each evaluated at either 400 and/or 200 g/kg level of inclusion in the basal diets employing 15 months old Black Anak layers which were already 10 months in lay. Employing maize or cassava basal diet generally had no significant (P>0.05) effect on AME, AMEn, TME and TMEn values of CLM, MLM, CRM, POS, FFSB. For FFSB, however, AME value from maize basal was significantly lower than for the cassava basal diet (13.42 vs. 13.84 MJ/kg). The AME, AMEn, TME and TMEn values of CC & SD were significantly influenced by the nature of basal diet employed in the evaluation with higher values obtained using cassava basal diet. In addition, energy values of CLM, MLM, CC and SD were generally depressed with increased rate of inclusion. These two factors should be considered if these feed ingredients are to be used advantageously in poultry ration formulation. Keywords : metabolizable energy, unconventional feed ingredients, poultry Moor Journal of Agricultural Research Vol. 5(1) 2004: 33-40