Available lysine, digestible protein and metabolized energy contents of corn gluten meal in diets of young growing turkeys

Abstract

Corn gluten meal is used extensively in poultry ration due to its high contents of xanthophyll, protein and energy. Perhaps its greatest deficiency is lysine. Not much information is available, however, on these nutrient contents in corn gluten meal. Two experiments were conducted to determine, (1) the . available lysine, (2) the digestible protein, and (3) the metabolizable energy of corn gluten meal, and (4) to determine the influence of two different basal diets in the digestible protein and metabolizable energy value of corn gluten meal when incorporated in the diets of one week old poults. The available lysine content of corn gluten meal was obtained by multiple regression analysis in a slope ratio bioassay and was found to be 0.95 percent. Total lysine was found to be 1.085 percent, by microbiological assay. Using two different samples of corn gluten meal, the digestible protein contents were found to be 95.88 and 98,91 milligrams per gram, and the metabolizable energy 4.27 and 4.26 kilocalories per gram. The standard errors of the determined available lysine, digestible protein and metabolizable energy were 15.7, 1.4 and. 1.3. and 2.4 and 3.0 percent of their respective means. Thus, by the methods used, digestible protein and metabolizeable energy determinations were more reproducible then available lysine determinations. Addition of corn gluten meal to a protein-free basal diet and to a balanced basal diet did not change the digestible protein and metabolizable energy value significantly. (P>.05)