Energetic values of feedstuffs for broilers determined with in vivo assays and prediction equations

Two experiments were conducted to test the suitability of a set of prediction equations to predict the nitrogen-corrected apparent metabolizable energy (AMEn) of protein and energetic ingredient concentrates used by the poultry feed industry. Nine protein concentrates and nine energetic concentrates were evaluated in six replicates each via substitution for 300 and 400 g/kg of the basal diet, respectively. These values were compared to the AMEn estimated via equations that utilized data on the chemistry composition of the feedstuffs. All the equations were efficient in estimating the AMEn values of the tested feedstuffs. We concluded that the prediction equations studied can be utilized to estimate the AMEn of protein and energetic concentrate ingredients used by the poultry feed industry. The equation AMEn = 4101.33 + 5.628EE−23.297ASH−2.486aNDFom + 1.042ADFom (R2 = 0.84; RSD = 0.4137; P-value<0.0001; n = 574) was most applicable in the prediction of energetic values of evaluated feedstuffs.