Metabolizable Energy and Digestibility Evaluation of Fish Meal for Chickens

THE COEFFICIENTS of digestibility of protein, ether extract, and nitrogen-free extract in fish meal fed to chickens have been reported by Fraps (1928 Fraps (1944), Axelsson (1937), Olsson (1950) and Titus (1955). From the reported coefficients of digestibility, the average composition of fish meal, and the Calories of productive or metabolizable energy per gram of effective digestible nutrients, the productive and metabolizable energy values of fish meal have been estimated by Fraps and Carlyle (1942), Fraps (1946) and Titus (1955). The metabolizable energy values of fish meal samples have been determined from the heats of combustion of diets containing different levels of fish meal and of excreta samples of chicks fed these diets (Olsson, 1955; Anderson, 1955; Hill et al., 1956; Hill and Renner, 1957; Hill, 1959; Potter and Matterson, 1960). The experiment to be reported deals with the determination of the metabolizable energy values and the coefficients of digestibility of …