Digestibility and metabolisable energy values of dried tomato pomace for laying and meat type cockerels

Dried tomato pomace (DTP), as an alternative for other ingredients in laying hen as well as broiler diets, has shown to produce comparable or even superior performance. However, there is no report on the digestibility coefficients of DTP in poultry. The coefficient of total tract apparent digestibility (CTTAD) of dry matter, nitrogen and ash as well as metabolisable energy values of DTP alone and with enzyme were determined in laying and broiler cockerels, using the force feeding method. In two consecutive experiments, 15 adult laying-type cockerels (Hy-Line W36, 35-week-old) and 21 meat-type cockerels (Ross 308, 8-week-old) were randomly grouped into three groups of five and seven replicates, respectively. Each bird received glucose solution (30 g/50 ml), DTP alone (30 g) and DTP with Avizyme 1502 (30 g + 20 mg) and the voided excreta were collected quantitatively, for 48 h. laying-type cockerels and broilers were similar in total output of endogenous dry matter, nitrogen, ash and energy. DTP increased (P<0.001) total dry matter, nitrogen, ash and energy output of experimental birds. Enzyme neither reduced the output of dry matter, nitrogen, ash and energy from adult cockerels, nor improved the CTTAD of dry matter, nitrogen, ash and metabolisable energy values of DTP (P>0.05). However, the enzyme reduced the loss of dry matter, nitrogen and energy from broiler cockerels fed on DTP by 17%, 16% and 14%, respectively. The added enzyme improved the CTTAD of dry matter and nitrogen as well as the metabolisable energy values of DTP (P<0.05).