Effects of Dietary Inclusion Level of DDGS from Wheat and Corn on Amino Acid Digestibilities in Broilers

At the highest level of inclusion in broiler diets (12 per cent), distillers’ dried grains with solubles (DDGS) adversely affected bird performance, nutrient digestibility and carcass traits, according to researchers from Egypt and Austria.

11 March 2012

3 minute read

By: Jackie Linden

Sherief M. Abdel-Raheem of Assiut University in Egypt, with co-authors from the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Science and the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, Austria have reported their work into the effects of feeding different levels of DDGS from wheat and corn (maize) to broilers in International Journal of Poultry Science.

In the paper, they explain that the objective of their study was to determine the effect of different levels of DDGS from wheat and corn on pre–caecal amino acid digestibilities, growth performance and some slaughter characteristics of broilers.

A total number of 240 day–old chicks (Ross 308) were randomly allotted to one of three treatments (80 birds per group), with four replicate pens per treatment and 20 birds per pen. Chicks were fed the experimental diets with DDGS at levels of 0, 6 and 12 per cent. All chicks had free access to feed and water ad libitum during the five–week experiment. Average daily gain, feed intake and feed conversion efficiency were determined weekly for 35 days.

The results indicated that bodyweight decreased in broilers fed 12 per cent DDGS compared the control group at the end of the experiment. There were no significant differences in feed intake and feed conversion at the first (1–22 days) or second (22–35 days) growing periods.

The researchers observed a significant reduction in the warm and cold carcass weight and the warm and cold dressing percentage for the 12 per cent inclusion level of DDGS.

Tryptophan digestibility was lower (p<0.05) with the addition of 12 per cent level of DDGS on day 21. In day 35, there is a significant decrease in the digestibility of total and some individual amino acids; for threonine, the reduction was 9.1 per cent and for arginine, 6.38 per cent at the highest level of inclusion of DDGS compared to the control group.

Abdel-Raheem and co-authors concluded that the 12 per cent inclusion level of DDGS from wheat and corn reduced growth performance, impacted carcass traits and lowered the digestibility of some amino acids and diet dry matter under their experimental conditions.

Reference

Abdel-Raheem S.M., R. Leitgeb and C. Iben. 2011. Effects of dietary inclusion level of distillers' dried grains with solubles (DDGS) from wheat and corn on amino acid digestibilities in broilers. International Journal of Poultry Science 10(12): 952-958.