Metabolizable Energy of Feed Ingredients for the Growing Chick

Abstract

Hill and Anderson (1958) and Potter et al. (1960) have shown that metabolizable energy of a diet is more precisely measured than is productive energy. In an effort to obtain reliable estimates of useful energy content of poultry feeds, a series of studies have been directed toward determining the metabolizable energy of feed ingredients.Sixty-one samples of feed ingredients, representing 27 poultry feedstuffs, have been evaluated. Using a basal diet patterned after that of Hill and Anderson (1958), experimental diets were formulated by adding, on a dry matter basis, the test ingredient at the expense of a portion of the total diet, or at the expense of cerelose in the basal diet. The rate of substitution was usually between 20 and 66⅔ percent of the diet. Each diet was fed to 2 to 6 groups of 9 chicks each for an experimental period from 2 to 4 weeks of age… .