Factors Affecting the Metabolizable Energy Content of Poultry Feeds

WHEN a portion of a poultry feed is replaced with a diluent the utilization of the feed may be changed. Sheehy (1939) observed that high energy chicken diets were less well utilized than ones in which the energy concentration was reduced by the addition of a fibrous feed, while Dymsza et al. (1953) reported that the utilization of the energy of a turkey diet was improved when oat hulls were added to raise the crude fibre content from 5 to 20 percent. Morris et al. (1932) found that a level of 10% crude fibre in the diet did not materially depreciate the coefficients of digestibility of the other nutrients. Halnan (1949) stated that while fibre naturally present in the feed exerts a considerable influence upon nutrient utilization, added fibre has much less influence. It has been claimed that the only effect of fibrous material added to chick diets was to …