Nutritional evaluation of silk flower hay in free range broiler chickens

Abstract

Aiming to evaluate the metabolizable energy value of silk flower hay and digestibility of the nutrients in semi-simplified rations, it was used 24 pullets Isa Label lineage (redneck), assigned to a fully randomized design in a 2x2 factorial arrangement. The treatments consisted of a control diet and another diet with 20% silk flower hay, which was developed for two distinct phases of rearing, creates and recreates. The young chickens were housed in pairs in metal cages adapted for total excreta collection, arranged in standard batteries, receiving ad libitum food and water. The average apparent digestibility of this study were 71.89% for dry matter, 76.83% for crude protein, 70.39% for ether extract, 25.49% for neutral detergent fiber, 16.27% for acid detergent fiber, 71.31% for gross energy, and of 13.68% availability for mineral matter. The digestibility of all nutrients was significantly lower for the ration with silk flower hay in both phases of growth. The apparent metabolizable energy value obtained for the silk flower hay was 662.63 and 809.10 kcal/kg for the creates and recreates phases, respectively. Thus, it is suggested infeasibility for the exclusive use of this forage in the free range poultry feeding. Keywords: Aviculture, digestibility, energy, Isa Label, nutrition, Calotropis procera.