Standardized ileal digestible amino acid and metabolizable energy contents of ahiflower seed and ahiflower press cake for broiler chickens

We determined the nitrogen-corrected apparent metabolizable energy (AME n ), apparent ileal digestibility (AID) of Ca and P, and standardized ileal digestible (SID) amino acid (AA) contents in ahiflower seed (AS) and press cake (APC). From day 14 to 21, broiler chicks were housed 5/cage in 32 cages, and assigned to 1 of 4 diets, in a completely randomized design. The diets were (1) corn–soybean meal-based diet; (2) corn and soybean meal replaced by 30% AS; (3) corn and soybean meal replaced by 30% APC; and (4) a low-protein casein–cornstarch-based diet to estimate basal ileal endogenous AA losses. All diets contained 1% celite as an indigestible marker. Excreta samples were collected on day 19–21 and pooled/cage for AME n determination. On day 21, all birds were euthanized by cervical dislocation, and contents of distal ileum were obtained and pooled/cage to determine AA, P, and Ca digestibility. On as-is-basis (kcal/kg), AS had AME and AME n of 1707 and 1640, respectively, while APC had AME and AME n of 1510 and 1579, respectively. The SID (%) of Arg (88.3), Met (87.6), Ala (85.3), Glu (87.8), and Tyr (84.9) in APC were significantly higher ( P < 0.05) than AS (82.7%, 76.7%, 74.8%, 77.5%, 76.6%, respectively). APC had higher ( P < 0.01) SID contents for all AA and AID of Ca and P than AS.