Nutritive value of fodder beet for broilers chickens

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to determine the apparent metabolisable energy (AME), nitrogen-corrected AME (AMEn) and the standardised ileal digestible content of amino acids in fodder beet (FB). Three maize-soybean-based diets were formulated, a basal diet (FB0), the basal diet supplemented with 12.5 % of FB (FB12.5), and the basal diet supplemented with 25 % of FB (FB25). Each diet was randomly allocated to six replicate cages with six birds per cage and fed from days 14–21. Titanium dioxide (4 g/kg) was included in all diets as an indigestible marker for the measurement of marker-based AME and ileal nutrient digestibility. The total collection (TC) method was also used for the measurement of AME. A regression method was used to determine the nutritive value of FB. The AME and AMEn of FB were determined to be 9.63 MJ/kg and 9.36 MJ/kg, respectively, using the TC method, and 7.97 MJ/kg, 7.79 MJ/kg, respectively, using the marker method. The apparent ileal crude protein (CP) and gross energy (GE) content of FB were 56.4 g/kg and 11.2 MJ/kg, respectively. Standardised ileal digestible amino acid content was higher for glutamic acid (21.1 g/kg) while it was lower for sulfur containing amino acids (-0.1 to −0.4 g/kg). In conclusion, nutritive value of FB was determined for 14–21 day old broilers using regression method. Further studies are needed to validate the current findings, and to determine the optimal inclusion level of FB in poultry diets.