Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2025, Vol. 56 ›› Issue (4): 1802-1812.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2025.04.028

• Animal Nutrition And Feeds • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effect of the Addition of Corn Gluten Meal to Low-protein Diversified Diet on Growth Performance and Digestive Characteristics of White-feathered Broilers

ZHU Yun1,2(), WANG Yuming2, SUN Xiaoxiao2, CHEN Hui1, ZHAO Feng2, XIE Jingjing2, CHEN Yifan1,*(), SA Renna2,*()   

  1. 1. College of Animal Science and Technology, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding 071001, China
    2. State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition and Feeding, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China
  • Received:2024-06-14 Online:2025-04-23 Published:2025-04-28
  • Contact: CHEN Yifan, SA Renna E-mail:zhuyun202404@163.com;chenyfchn@163.com;sarenna@caas.cn

Abstract:

This experiment was conducted to study the effect of low-protein diet structure on the growth performance and digestive charateristics in white-feathered broilers during the early growing period, and to provide references for the rational application of low-protein diversified diets in broiler production. Experiments were arranged as a 3×2 two-factor completely randomized design, in which the diet type factors included corn-soybean meal type (SBM), corn-soybean meal-cottonseed meal type (CSM) and corn-soybean meal-rapeseed meal type (RSM), and the corn gluten meal factor was divided into 2 types of no addition (0%) and addition (5%). A total of 390 male 1-day-old Arbor Acres (AA) broilers were randomly divided into 6 treatments, with 5 replicates per treatment and 13 broilers per replicate. The experiment included 2 phases, in the broiler brooding phase (1-14 days of age), each treatment was fed with the above 6 diets, respectively, resulted in 6 kinds of broilers (SBM0, CSM0, RSM0, SBM5, CSM5, RSM5), and in the growing phase (15-28 days of age), all the broilers were fed with the same diet. The growth performance of broilers in each phase was determined, as well as the nutrient digestibility, fecal scores, and in vitro nutrient digestibility of feces when broilers fed the same diet during the growing phase. The results showed as follows: 1) There was no significant interaction between diet type and corn gluten meal on the growth performance of broilers in each phase, the addition of corn gluten meal during the brooding phase significantly increased (P < 0.05) the F/G of broilers but did not significantly affect the other growth performance indicators. The final body weight and average daily gain of broilers fed SBM diet during the brooding and growing phase were greater than those fed the RSM diet (P < 0.05), but there was no significant difference on F/G among treatments. 2) A diet type×corn gluten meal interaction (P < 0.05) was observed for the digestibility of gross energy (GE), which was driven by broilers in the SBM0 group had higher (P < 0.05) digestibility of GE than those of RSMO、SBM5、CSM5 and RSM5 groups. Diet type had no significant effect on the digestibility of dry matter (DM) and crude protein (CP) of broilers, but the addition of corn gluten meal reduced (P < 0.05) the digestibility of DM and CP. 3) The addition of corn gluten meal increased (P < 0.05) fecal particle size, but had no effect on fecal scores. Broilers in CSM and RSM group had better (P < 0.05) fecal color, molding, and diarrhea scores compared with SBM broilers. 4) A diet type×corn gluten meal interaction (P < 0.05) effect was observed for the in vitro nutrient digestibility of broiler feces, the digestibility of DM and GE in feces in the SBM5 group was higher (P < 0.05) than that without the addition of corn gluten meal group. Additionally, effective energy value in broiler faeces was positively correlated (P < 0.05) with its ether extract content and negatively correlated (P < 0.05) with crude fibre content. In conclusion, the diet type and corn gluten meal had greater effect on the growth and digestive function development of broiler chickens. Especially in the early growing period, the addition of unconventional plant protein meal or corn gluten meal in corn-soybean meal diet will reduce the nutrient digestibility, thereby reducing the growth rate of boilers.

Key words: broiler, diet type, corn gluten meal, growth performance, digestive function

CLC Number: