Poultry feed energy requirements

Like all other animals, poultry require five components in their diet as a source of nutrients energy, protein, minerals, vitamins and water. A nutrient shortage or imbalance in relation to other nutrients will affect performance adversely. Poultry need a well-balanced and easily digested diet for optimal production of eggs and meat and are very sensitive to dietary quality because they grow quickly and make relatively little use of fibrous, bulky feeds such as lucerne hay or pasture, since they are non-ruminants (have a simple stomach compartment). 

The requirements set out in this publication and taken mainly from the report on the Nutrient Requirements of Poultry (NRC, 1994) are based on ME (AME), expressed as kilocalories (kcal) or megacalories (Meal)/kg feed. This energy system is used widely in North America and in many other countries. Energy units used in some countries are based on joules (J), kilojoules (kj) or megajoules (MJ). A conversion factor can be used to convert calories to joules, i.e. IMeal = 4.184 MJ 1MJ = 0.239 Meal and 1MJ = 239 kcal. Therefore, the tables of feedstuff composition in this publication show ME values expressed as MJ or kj as well as keal/kg. 

Full-fat soybean meal is an excellent source of energy and protein with special value in diets for poultry when high nutrient concentration is required. This is the case for all turkey diets, most broiler diets, and feeds for laying hens early in the production cycle, as raw bean contain antinutrients. 

Different feeding standards adopt different approaches to estimate energy and protein requirements for growth. Protein requirements for pigs and poultry are generally more detailed than those of ruminants and horses because they include estimates of requirements for specific amino acids. 

Besides the effect on intestinal health, there are many more interactions between feed and health of poultry and pigs. These interactions represent possible additional values for specific nutrient or ingredients. These include both the influence of (suboptimal) conditions of animals on nutrient requirements as well as specific effects of diet components on animal health. For example, several studies have shown that withdrawal of antibiotics from the diet may influence the optimal amino acid to energy ratio (Bikker et al, 2003) and optimal amino acid pattern, especially with regard to... 

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