Aust. 3.Exf. Agric. Anim. Husb.

, 1980,

20:

151-155

151

Energy losses in the excreta of poultry: a model

for predicting dietary metabolizable energy
K. W. Moir, W. J . Yule and J . I%. Connor
Summary-Twenty-four poultry diets with gross energy values ranging from 18.43 to 21.54 M J kg-' DM
were fed to chickens using a standard metabolizable energy (ME) assay procedure. Gross energy as
determined by bomb calorimetry was significantly related to gross energy as calculated from chemical
composition (protein, fat, and carbohydrate), with an RSD of f0.25 M J kg-' DM. Energy loss via faeces
and urine (range 4.1 1 to 5.91 M J kg-' diet DM) was significantly related to crude fibre expressed as a
percentage of the total dietary carbohydrate (range 3.7 to 8.6). The RSD was f0.29 MJ.
By treating the components of ME (gross energy and energy loss) separately, bias of biological origin
was separated from random error in the prediction of ME from chemical composition.

Metabolizable energy (ME) is energy that is values. The determined values were obtained by
available for animal production; in non-ruminant bomb calorimetry, while calculated values were
animals it is determined as the difference between the derived from chemical composition using constant
gross energy of the diet and the combined energy calorific values for protein, fat and carbohydrate.
The other component arises from differences in the
losses in faeces and urine. I t is predictable from the
chemical composition of the diet, but with an digestibility by poultry of protein, fat and carbounacceptably high error. Of the various published hydrate between feeds. For the purpose of investigatmultiple regression equations, some use proximate ing this we related energy loss in the excreta to crude
constituents-crude protein, crude fat, crude fibre, fibre expressed as a percentage of the total carbonitrogen-free extract-as predictors, while others use hydrate (CF/CHO). The reason for this follows from
proximate constituents with nitrogen-free extract earlier work (Moir and Connor 1977), in which crude
replaced by sugar plus starch. References to the fibre was found to be correlated with a much larger
equations that are available have been cited by fibre fraction in sorghum grain. If it is assumed that
this larger fibre fraction has a consistently low
Sibbald and Price ( I 976).
A source of error in predicting ME from chemical digestibility, while the rest of the chrbohydrate has
composition is the ME assay itself, because the dietary a consistently high digestibility, then part of the
ME value as determined is essential to the prediction residual variance in the regression of energy loss on
equation. From this source emanates random bio- CF/CHO is due to variation in this ratio between
logical variation as well as sampling and analytical feeds. Most of the remaining variance would be due
errors. However, our main concern was not with these to variation in the digestibilities of protein and fat.
errors, but with the bias of biological origin in the
relation between ME and the chemical composition
of a particular type of diet.
Bias in the prediction of ME has two main com- Materials and methods
ponents; one is due solely to the diet, while the other Diets
concerns interaction between the diet and the animal. These were a range of fairly typical broiler starter and
The component of dietary origin arises from differ- finisher diets, but with tallow added in more than
ences in the calorific values of protein, fat and
carbohydrate between feeds. We investigated this Ths Authors-Mr. K. W. Moir, Mr. W.J. Yule and Mr.
component by considering the residual variance in a J. K, Connor, Defartment of Primary Industries, Yeerongregression of determined and calculated gross calorific pilly, Queensland, 4 I 05.

Australian Journal of Exberimental Agriculture and Animal Husbandry:

152

Volume 20 April 1980

usual amounts to some to give a wide range of gross

calorific values. There were 24 diets and their formulations are given in table I . They were made up to
100% with additives comprising a carrier with
minerals and vitamins, a coccidiostat and a growth
promotant. The amount of additive varied between
1.4 and 3.2% of the diet; the variation was due to
the amount of added minerals, which depended upon
the overall formulation.

Anal_ytical methods
Crude fibre, fat, moisture and ash were determined
by methods that have been developed for the purpose
of streamlining these analytical procedures. We have
calibrated them against standard methods of the
Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC
1975). The essential features of the new crude fibre
method, which has been described by Moir and
Connor (1g77), are the replacement of refluxing by
heating in closed tubes, each of which incorporates
a filter; there is no transfer between the acid and
Determination of energy loss
This was determined for each diet with three replicates alkali extraction. Instead of using an oven for heating
each of ten Australorp chickens using a three-day during extraction as previously described, boiling
collection period as described by Connor et al. (1976). water was used as a reproducible heat source, and
Energy loss was the product of the dry weight of extraction times were 30 minutes in both acid and
excreta and its calorific value as determined by bomb alkali. The same apparatus was used for prior fat
extraction, which involved two go-minute extractions
calorimetry.
TABLE 1

The formulation of 24 poultry diets. Percentage combosition on an "as fed" basis.

Diet
no.

Wheat Sorghum

Maize

Barley Meat meal Meat-andBlood

(55%
bone-meal
meal
protein) (45% protein)

Fish
meal

Soybean Mill run

meal
(bran and
(expeller) pollard)

Sunflower
meal

Tallow

Moir et al. : Metabolizable energy of poultry diets

of 0.5 g samples with 6 ml aliquots of diethyl ether

under pressure at 55OC. The combined extracts and
washings were collected in a beaker, and fat was
determined gravimetrically.
Dry matter and ash were determined on 0.3-0.5 g
samples in "crucibles" formed by pressing domestic
quality aluminium foil over a conventional crucible.
Because of its low heat capacity, the crucible with
and without sample was weighed after oven drying
without prior cooling in a desiccator. Ignition of the
sample at 570C for I hour was used for the determination of ash.
Nitrogen was determined on 0.5 g samples by an
automated macro-Kjeldahl apparatus.
The gross calorific values of diets and excreta were
determined by ignition of a I g pelleted sample in a
platinum crucible in an adiabatic bomb calorimeter.

I53

For this determination the excreta were first freezedried and residual moisture was determined on a
separate sample.
The gross calorific values of the diets also were
calculated from chemical composition. The calorific
values of crude protein, crude fat and carbohydrate
were taken as 23.5, 39.5 and 17.5 MJ k g 1 respectively,
and so the calculated gross calorific value (MJ k g 1
DM) was:
23.5 x % protein + 39.5 x % fat + 17.5 x % carbohydrate
100

Results and discussion

The chemical composition of the 24 diets, crude fibre
expressed as a percentage of the total carbohydrate,
gross energy values of the diets as determined by

TABLE 2

The chemical composition and gross energy o f the dry matter o f 24 poultry diets and the enerpy losses by chickens fed them.
I

Diet
no.

Crude
protein

Crude
fat

Crude
fibre

Ash

Crude fibreltotal
carbohydrate

Gross
energy

Energy
loss

MJ kg-l diet
18.46
5.46
18.73
5.22
19.01
4.1 1
20.18
4.90
20.11
4.33
20.50
5.05
20.56
4.19
20.47
4.31
19.12
4.99
19.68
5.70
19.42
4.64
20.60
5.68
20.91
5.05
21.54
5.26
21.25
4.11
21.32
4.31
18.43
5.91
19.78
5.36
19.87
4.81
19.97
4.83
19.07
5.34
19.36
5.03
19.92
4.89
19.66
4.57

Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture and Animal Husbandry : Volume

I54

20

April 1980

bomb calorimetry, and values for energy losses are

given in table 2. Various relations between these, or
derived values, are given in table 3.
In equation I in table 3, the residual standard
deviation (RSD) of &0.25 MJ was only 1.255%of the
mean gross energy value of 19.9 MJ kg-1 DM.
Because of the high correlation, biological bias in the
relation between gross energy and chemical composition could not be demonstrated; the RSD could be
explained by the error in determining the gross
energy value itself, as well as by accumulated errors
in the determination of moisture, protein, fat and
ash, which made up the X variable in the
equation.
In a correlation between ME and gross energy
the r2 value showed that 83% of the variation in ME
was explained by gross energy.
The second component of biological bias in the
prediction of ME is the difference in digestibilities
of the major nutrients between diets. The r2 value
in equation 2 shows that 83% of the variation in
energy loss was explained by CF/CHO. The overall
accuracy in predicting energy loss was defined by
the RSD of i o . 2 9 MJ kg-l DM. To assist in identifying the component of biological bias in this residual
variance, deviations from regression of individual diets
were isolated and these are presented in table 4. The
largest positive deviation was 0.62 MJ in diet 17.
This and diet 21, with the next highest positive
deviation of 0.33 MJ, contained the highest levels of
mill run; however, any judgement about the accuracy
of predicting the ME value of diets containing mill
run must be reserved, because diet 10 contained only
a slightly lower proportion of this product, and its

deviation, although positive, was relatively low

(0.14 MJ). Apart from a hint that diets containing
high levels of mill run might not have conformed,
there was no other sign of systematic variation from
regression, and it is concluded that most of the residual
variance in equation 2 was of random origin. Even in
diet 3, which had the largest deviation from regression
(-0.93 MJ), there was nothing singularly unusual
about its formulation or chemical composition.
As the residual variance in equation 2 was of a
mainly random nature, a multiple regression equation
for predicting ME from chemical composition could
be used with more confidence than the RSD would
lead one to believe. We derived the following prediction equation from our data:
Y = -0.92
0.90 X, - 0.287 X,
(r = 0.950; RSD ko.37) ,
where Y is ME (MJ kg-, DM) uncorrected for
nitrogen equilibrium, X, is gross energy of the diet
(MJ kg-, DM) calculated from chemical composition, and X, is crude fibre expressed as a percentage
of the total dietary carbohydrate.
Since the publication of Hill and Anderson (1958)
it has been the usual practice to express the ME value
of poultry feeds as "nitrogen-corrected ME". The
nitrogen-correction factor, as determined on our data
by the method of Sibbald and Slinger (1963), was
significantly correlated with ME (r =0.60; P c 0.00 I ) .
The equation for predicting nitrogen-corrected ME
from the same X variables as above is:

TABLE 3

Deviations from the regression of energy loss ( M J kg-,

diet D M ) on crude jbre expressed as a percentage of total
carbohydrate.

-2.13

+ 0.90 X,

- 0.279 X,
(r = 0.96; RSD ko.31).

TABLE 4

The components of metabolizable energy ( M J kg-I diet D M )

and their prediction.

Equation

Gross energy
(determined)

Energy loss

Gross energy
calculated
from chemical
composition
Crude fibre
as percentage
of total
carbohydrate

Y = 2.15 0.906X
(r = 0.980;
RSD k0.25;
P < 0.001)
Y = 3.07 0.308X
(r = 0.914;
RSD k0.29;
P < 0.001)

Equation
no.

+
+

Diet
no.

Deviation

Diet
no.

Deviation

Diet
no.

Deviation

Moir et al. : Metabolizable ener/y of poultry diets

I55

A likely source of systematic error in the use of a Doughtie, R. T. (1958)-The growing importance of the crude
fibre determination in oilseed meals. Journal of the Association
prediction equation based on proximate constituents
Agrincltural Chemists 41 : 441446.
is the determination of crude fibre; Doughtie (1958) Hill, ofF.O$rcial
W., and Anderson, D. L. (1958)-Comparison of
found large differences in a collaborative laboratory
metabolizable energy and productive energy determistudy of this analysis. In our experience, accurate
nations with growing chicks.Journa1 of Nutrition 64 : 587-603.
crude fibre results by the standard method of analysis Moir, K. W., and Connor, J. K. (1977)-A comparison of three
fibre methods for predicting the metabolizable energy
can be obtained only if the boiling rate in the
content of sorghum grain for poultry. Animal Feed Science and
digestion with acid or alkali is adjusted so there is no
Technologv 2 : 197-203.
frothing. To assist in achieving this objective the walls Sibbald, I. R., and Price, K. (1976)-Relationships between
of the digestion flash must be completely wetted with
metabolizable energy values for poultry and some physical
and chemical data describing Canadian wheat, oats and
extractant and the sample must be washed down
barleys. Canadian Journal of Animal Science 56 : 255-268.
thoroughly. Antifoam should not be used.
REFERENCES
AOAC (1975)-"Official Methods of Analysis". (Association
of Official Analytical Chemists: Washington, D.C.)
Connor, J. K., Neill, A. R., and Barram, K. M. (1976)-The
metabolizable energy content for the chicken of maize and
sorghum grain hybrids grown at several geographical regions.
Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture and Animal
Husbandry 16 : 699-703.

Sibbald, I. R., and Slinger, S. J. (1963)-A biological assay for

metabolizable energy together with findings which demonstrate some of the problems associated with the evaluation
of fats. Poultry Science 42 : 313-325.

Received for @&cation JuLy 16, 1979