A Comparative Study of Metabolizable Energy Values of 4 Common Feedstuffs between Gander and Cockerel

This experiment was conducted to compare metabolizable energy values of some common feedstuffs for gander and cockerel.In the experiment,ten adult Yangzhou ganders with weight of(3.76±0.23) kg and ten adult New Yangzhou cockerels with weight of(2.57±0.17) kg were employed to measure metabolizable energy values of 4 common feedstuffs(corn,soybean meal,paddy and wheat bran) using Sibbald method.Endogenous energy loss(EEL) was measured with starved birds.The results showed that apparent metabolizable energy(AME) of corn and soybean meal for gander was similar to that for cockerel(P0.05),whereas true metabolizable energy(TME) of corn and soybean meal for gander was significantly lower than that for cockerel(P0.05).The AME of paddy and wheat bran for gander was significantly higher than that for cockerel(P0.05).There were no significant differences between gander and cockerel in TME of paddy and wheat bran(P0.05).The EEL of gander was slightly higher than that of cockerel when the birds were fed soybean meal.However,the EEL of gander was significantly higher than that of cockerel when the birds were fed feedstuffs except soybean meal(P0.05).It is concluded that metabolizable energy values of some feedstuffs for gander are not consistent with those for cockerel.The metabolizable energy values of some feedstuffs are similar between gander and cockerel,however,the others are different.The EEL of gander is higher than that of cockerel.