Department of Animal Sciences, College of Agriculture, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263 145.
1 Part of M.V.Sc. thesis, GBPUAT, Pantnagar.
Representative samples drawn from the conunercially available soybean meal (SBM) and meat meal (MM) were evaluated for their apparent metabolisable energy (AME) through chick bioassay and also by prediction equation based nutrient composition data. Two-week-old crossbred broiler chicks were employed for energy bioassay, and each of the two test materials evaluated at 10 or 20% level in practical type diet employing total excreta collection technique. The AME of the two materials were also predicted from the knowledge of their chemical composition data. The AME and SBM and MM in chick bioassay were found to be 2638 and 3492 Kcal/kg dry matter, respectively. Corresponding AME values derived through, prediction equation were found to vary between 2328 to 6912 and 2884 to 3525 Kcal/kg DM. It was concluded that whereas from SBM the chicks derived only about 58% of the potential energy they derived significantly (P<0.01) more (over 80%) form MM. The usefulness of predicting AME of such feedstuffs vis-a-vis bioassays has been discussed.
Poultry, soybean meal, meat meal, energy bioassay metabolisable energy
