Physical form of broiler diets containing pearl millet grain on nutrient digestibility

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the nutrient digestibility of diets with different physical forms containing whole or milled millet grain in diets for broilers in a metabolism trial in pre-initial and initial phases. The experiment structure was a randomized block design in a factorial 3 x 2 arrangement, with three diets (diet without millet and diet with 20% millet whole grain or diet with 20% ground millet) in two physical forms (mash or pelleted). There were five replicates per treatment and six birds per experimental unit for determination of nutrient digestibility and apparent metabolizable energy and apparent corrected for nitrogen balance). The results showed that the values for apparent metabolizable energy of diet with whole millet grain or ground millet not differ and the same were observed for apparent corrected for nitrogen balance. The pelleted diets were more digestible, which provided a better use of millet grain.