Influence of dietary corn distillers' dried grains with solubles on nutrient digestibility, growth performance, and carcass traits in rabbits.

Two experiments were performed to evaluate the digestibility and growth performance of New Zealand White rabbits fed corn distillers' dried grains with solubles (DDGS). For the digestibility trial, 20 rabbits were housed in metabolic cages. The animals were distributed in two treatments, T1 (control diet without inclusion of DDGS) and T2 (control diet + 300 g kg-1 DDGS). For the growth performance trial, 100 rabbits (50 males and 50 females) were assigned in a factorial design 2 × 5 (2 gender × 5 inclusions of DDGS) and five replicates. The treatments were composed of diets with inclusions of 0, 60, 120, 180, and 240 g kg-1 of DDGS. The rabbits were housed at 35 days old, and the experiment lasted 35 days. The DDGS showed high digestibility for protein (74.10%) and lipids (81.51%) and a high content of digestible energy (2979 kcal kg-1). In the second trial, growth performance and carcass yield and organ relative weights were evaluated. There were no interactions between gender and DDGS inclusions (P > 0.05). A linear decrease was observed for feed intake (FI) for the period from days 35 to 50 (FI, P = 0.001) and FI and FCR from days 35 to 70 (FI, P = 0.004; FCR, P = 0.001) with the increasing levels of DDGS. Rabbits supplemented with 240 g kg-1 had lower (P < 0.05) whole carcass yield (WCY) and carcass without head yield compared with the control rabbits. DDGS is highly digestible in rabbits, and when supplemented up to 240 g kg-1 in diets, it improved FCR but reduced FI and WCY.

Performance, metabolism, and meat quality of broilers fed dry brewery residue.

A study was conducted to assess the chemical composition and apparent metabolizable energy (AME), nitrogen-corrected AME (AMEn), and their respective coefficients of dry brewery residue (DBR) for broilers. A second study was conducted to evaluate the increasing inclusions of DBR in broiler diets and its effects on growth performance, carcass traits, blood metabolites, and meat quality. In the first trial (metabolism assay), a total of 250 male broilers were assigned to 5 diets (0, 100, 200, 300, and 400 g DBR/kg) composed by 5 replications with 10 animals per cage in a completely randomized design in the period from days 11 to 21. There was an increasing linear effect for AME, AMEn, metabolizable coefficient of gross energy (MCGE), and MCGE corrected for N (MCGEn). In the second experiment, a total of 840 one-day-old male broiler chickens were assigned to 6 treatments (0, 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 g DBR/kg) with 7 replications and 20 animals per pen, from days 0 to 42. Growth performance was determined at days 21 and 42. There was an increasing linear effect for weight gain in the period from days 0 to 21 and for feed intake from days 0 to 42. A linear decreasing effect was observed at day 21 for cholesterol and quadratic effect for uric acid (UA), aspartate aminotransferase, and albumin. At day 42, there was a quadratic effect for UA and creatinine. At day 21, an increasing linear effect was observed for protein deposition rate. In conclusion, the inclusion of DBR up to 100 g/kg improved WG in the starter phase and did not negatively affect the productive parameters of broilers from days 0 to 42.