Aleurone Cells and the Digestibility of Wheat Mill Feeds

PELLETING feeds is usually advantageous for several reasons. Where improved growth has been shown, however, workers do not agree on the factor(s) responsible for the improvement. The relative value of pellets versus mash and grain in poultry nutrition has been the subject of a review by Calet (1965) where current speculations to account for the observed differences have been listed. It appears certain that chemical and/or physical changes must have occurred during the pelleting process to account for the large differences found. Recently Cave et al. (1965a, b) found that wheat milling fractions gave relatively low metabolizable energy values and poor protein utilization when they constituted an important part of chick diets. By steam-pelleting wheat bran, the metabolizable energy in chick diets was increased as much as 30% over unpelleted mash. An increase of 17% was found for steam-pelleted wheat shorts over unpelleted material. The present paper reports findings which . . .