title: Influence of feed form and source of soybean meal of the diet on growth performance of broilers from 1 to 42 days of age. 1. Floor pen study.
abstract: In total, 3,120 broilers were used to study the effects of feed form and source of soybean meal (SBM) of the diet on growth performance. From 1 to 21 d of age, there were 12 treatments arranged factorially with 3 feed forms (mash, crumbles, and pellets) and 4 commercial sources of SBM that differed in the CP content [48.1 and 46.2% CP from the United States (USA-1 and USA-2), 47.6% CP from Brazil (BRA), and 46.3% CP from Argentina (ARG)]. From 21 to 42 d of age, diets were fed as pellets. Diets were formulated assuming that all SBM had similar digestible amino acid content per unit of CP. From 1 to 21 d of age, chicks fed crumbles or pellets had higher (P < 0.001) ADG than chicks fed mash. Also, chicks fed pellets had better (P < 0.001) feed-to-gain ratio (F:G) than chicks fed crumbles, and both were better than chicks fed mash. However, from 21 to 42 d of age, F:G was best (P < 0.001) for chicks previously fed mash. For the entire experimental period, broilers that were fed crumbles or pellets from 1 to 21 d of age had higher (P < 0.001) ADG than broilers that were fed mash. Also, broilers that were fed pellets had better (P < 0.05) F:G than broilers fed mash, with broilers fed crumbles being intermediate. Broilers fed the USA-2 meal had higher (P < 0.01) ADG than broilers fed the BRA or the ARG meals, with broilers fed the USA-1 meal being intermediate. Feed efficiency tended (P = 0.07) to be hindered in broilers fed the BRA meal. The results show that pelleting improved growth performance of broilers from 1 to 42 d of age with effects being less evident at 42 d than at 21 d of age. Source of SBM affected growth performance suggesting the need for a better control of chemical composition and quality of this ingredient before diet formulation.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Producción Animal, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Serrano
authors.forename: D G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Valencia
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Méndez
authors.forename: G G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Mateos
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging; D000821:Animal Feed / Q000032:analysis*; D000822:Animal Husbandry; D000824:Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D000818:Animals; D002645:Chickens / Q000254:growth & development*; D004032:Diet / Q000662:veterinary*; D006799:Housing, Animal; D008297:Male; D013025:Glycine max / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*