A study was conducted to determine the AMEn contents of fat by-products from the soybean oil industry for broiler chickens. A total of 390 slow-feathering Cobb × Cobb 500 male broilers were randomly distributed into 13 treatments having 6 replicates of 5 birds each. Birds were fed a common starter diet from placement to day 21. Experimental corn-soy diets were composed of four fat sources, added at 3 increasing levels each, and were fed from days 21 to 28.
The oil sources utilized in this experiment were: acidulated soybean soapstock (ASS), glycerol (GLY), lecithin (LEC), and a mixture (MIX) containing 85% ASS, 10% GLY and 5% LEC. The treatments were four by-products (ASS, GLY, LEC, or MIX), three inclusion levels and one basal diet. Each of the four oil by-product sources was included in the diets at 2%, 4%, or 6%. Birds were submitted to 94, 96, 98, and 100% of ad libitum feed intake; therefore, the differences in AMEn consumption were only due to the added by-product. Total excreta were collected twice daily for 72 h to determine apparent metabolizable energy contents starting at day 25. The AMEn intake was regressed against feed intake and the slope was used to estimate AMEn values for each fat source. The study generated the following AMEn for the four soybean oil by-products that can be used in poultry feed formulation.
