Growth performance and nutrient digestibility of exotic turkey broilers fed varying levels of energy to protein (e/p) ratios

Abstract

The objective of the study was to determine the energy/protein (E/P) ratio of exotic turkeys in the humid tropical environment of Nigeria. In a 16 weeks feeding trial, a total of 144 day-old exotic poults with initial weight of 57g (± 0.4 SE) were randomly assigned to six dietary treatments in a 2×3 factorial design with 24 poults per treatment and each treatment was replicated twice. The factors were two levels of metabolisable energy (ME; kcal/kg) and 3 levels of crude protein (CP). At 0-4 weeks, diets 1-3 and 4-6 contained 2800 and 2900 ME and each with 30, 28 and 26% CP and E/P ratio of diets 1-6 were 93:1, 100:1, 107:1, 96:1, 104:1 and 112:1 respectively. At 4 - 8 weeks, diets 1 - 3 and 4 - 6 comprised energy levels of 2900 and 3000 ME each with CP of 28, 26, and 24% respectively and E/P ratio of diets 1-6 were 104:1, 116:1, 112:1, 107:1, 115:1 and 125:1 respectively. At 8 – 12 weeks, diets 1 - 3 and 4 - 6 also comprised of energy levels 3000 and 3100 ME respectively with 24, 22 and 20% CP and E/P ratio of diets 1-6 were 125:1, 136:1, 150:1, 129:1, 141:1 and 155:1 respectively. At weeks 12 - 16, diets 1 - 3 and 4 – 6 contained 3000 and 3100 ME at CP levels of 21, 19 and 17% and the E/P ratio of diets 1-6 were 143:1, 156:1, 176:1, 148:1, 163:1 and 182:1 respectively. There was no significant effect of energy, protein or their interaction on any of the performance characteristics of poults from 0-16 weeks of age. There was no significant effect of energy, protein or E/P ratio on any of the proximate digestibility values. It was concluded that the E/P ratio, energy and protein requirements of exotic turkey may not be more than 107:1 (2800 ME and 26% CP), 121:1(2900 ME and 24% CP), 150:1(3000 ME and 20% CP) and 177:1(3000 ME and 17% CP) for 0-4, 4-8, 8-12 and 12-16 weeks, respectively.

Keywords: nutrient requirements, energy/protein ratio, poults, protein, energy