Determination of nitrogen digestibility and metabolizable energy of a blend of sorghum with three levels of particle size and addition of an enzyme complex in poultry

Abstract

In order to evaluate the effect of the addition of an enzyme complex (CE) to three levels of a mixture of grain sorghum (BS) on nitrogen digestibility and metabolizable energy in adult roosters and broilers was carried out two experiments (Exp.), using in Exp. I, 56 adult roosters Bovans Brown line and in Exp. II, 42 Ross broiler hybrid 308 in the completion phase with 33 day old. We used a completely randomized design with factorial arrangementwith six treatments (100% BS with three levels of grading) and the presence of CE (with or without CE), with eight adult roosters per treatment (Experiment I) and six broilers per treatment (Exp.II). We determined the true digestibility of nitrogen and true metabolizable energy. Result showed, no significant differences were found for the variables of particle size and presence or absence of EMV CE in the two experiments. There were differences (P <0.01 and P <0.001) for the particle size factor (87.7 ± 2.31) and interaction with CE (82.9 ± 3.45) respectively, on the DVN in Exp. I, in Exp. II there was no effect of the two variables on the DVN. The values of EMV and DVN in Exp. II were always lower than those obtained in Exp. I. We conclude that the results obtained allow us to differentiate the needs for each bird, thus avoiding overestimation of the energy content and digestibility of nitrogen. As well as, particle size mix of sorghum between 3 and 5mm are more suitable for birds.