QETEMINATION OF THE TRUE METABOLIZABLE ENERGY VALUE AND DPGESTIWILI[TY OF SARDINE FISH MEAL

Abstract

Ten mature broiler chickens paired on equal weight basis were sta~vedf or 24h to void completely previous feed residues. Five of the birds were force-fed 30g dry matter(DM) of ;ardine fish meal as slurry. Before forming the slurry, the meal was sampled for
proximate analysis. The other five birds were starved throughout the experimental period as a control group for the estimation of the metabolic faecal and endogenous urinary losses.
Excreta were quantitatively collected at 24, 48, and 60h post-prandium, and part of each
sample was taken for proximate analysis for the calculation of their percent digestibility, while the other part was bombed along with the meal for gross energy (GE) determination.
Results showed that the different energy estimates differed (P < 0.05) at different collection periods. The true metabolisable energy (TME) was greater (P < 0.05) than the AME, AMEn and TMEn while apparent metabolisable energy corrected to zero nitrogen
balance (AMEN) was the leeqt. The TME and true dry matter digestibility of sardine fish meal were 3.4cal/g and 69.30%, respectively.