Effect of Feed Fines Level on Broilers Fed Two Concentrations of Dietary Lysine from 14 to 30 Days of Age

Abstract

A study was conducted to determine if increasing dietary lysine would improve body weight gain and feed efficiency (FE) of male broilers from 14 to 30 d when fed diets containing high proportion of feed fines. A 2x5 factorial treatment arrangement was achieved by feeding diets containing two concentrations of total lysine (1.00 and 1.15% of the diet) with five levels of feed fines (20, 30, 40, 50 and 60% of the diet). Feed fines represented a blend of fines created and scalped during manufacturing, and intact pellets ground with a hammermill. Subsequently, proportions of pellets and fines were blended to obtain desired levels of feed fines. Eight grower cages of 5 male broiler chicks were fed each dietary treatment from 14 to 30 d. Body weight gain was depressed for birds fed 1.00% lysine when the diet contained in excess of 20% fines. Birds fed 1.15% lysine diets containing 20% fines did not significantly differ in weight gain from birds fed the same lysine concentration regardless of fines level. At fines levels greater than 20%, feeding 1.15% lysine resulted in a significant improvement (P=0.0324) in FE at each level of fines. Birds fed 1.00% lysine at the lowest level of fines displayed a significantly greater average feed intake (P=0.05) than any other treatment. Lack of a feed intake response at increasing levels of fines suggests that birds received a growth benefit independent of feed intake. Results demonstrated that increasing dietary lysine concentrations may compensate for inferior performance obtained with diets of poor pellet quality.