• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.253-258
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• 2017

This study was aimed at evaluating the additivity of crude protein digestibility in mixed diets of corn and soybean meal (SBM), and comparing direct and indirect methods for evaluating crude protein (CP) digestibility. Totally, five hundred and twenty-five 18-day-old broiler chickens were grouped into 7 blocks based on body weight, and randomly allocated to 6 treatment groups in a randomized complete block design. The basal diet, diet 3, was corn-SBM-based, containing 65% corn and 28% SBM. Diets 1 and 5 contained corn and SBM, respectively, as the sole CP source. To use the difference method, 2 diets, diets 2 and 4, were prepared by mixing corn and SBM at the expense of the basal diet, respectively. Diet 2 contained 79% corn and 14% SBM, and diet 4 contained 32.5% corn and 34% SBM. To evaluate the additivity of digestibility values, the difference between measured values for the mixed diets (diets 2, 3, and 4) and predicted values calculated using the measured values for diets 1 and 5 was examined. The apparent (AID) and standardized (SID) ileal digestibility of CP in SBM differed between the direct and indirect methods; however, corresponding digestibility did not differ for corn. Additionally, the predicted and measured digestibility of both AID and SID differed in diets 2 and 3, implying that the digestibility values obtained from diets 1 and 5 were not additive for mixed diets. In conclusion, this study showed that digestibility evaluated by direct and indirect methods depends on the ingredients having different CP concentrations, and this finding may be considered to improve the accuracy of feed formulation for broiler chickens.