Effect of Adding Different Dietary Levels of Distillers Dried Grain

Using distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) as a feed ingredient in poultry nutrition has lately been increased. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of adding different dietary levels of DDGS on the productive performance of broiler chicks from 1 to 35 d of age. Two hundred forty one-d-old broiler chicks were randomly distributed among 3 treatment groups with eight replicates of 10 chicks each. Chicks were fed a broiler diet containing 0.0, 5.0, or 10.0% DDGS. Results obtained from the present study showed no significant differences in body weight, body weight gain, feed intake and mortality rate among dietary treatments from 1-35 d of age. Feed conversion ratio and performance index were significantly better for chicks fed diet containing 5.0% DDGS than those fed diet containing 0.0% DDGS from 8 to 14 d of age only, but were no differences between chicks fed 10.0% and those fed either 0.0 or 5.0% DDGS. These results indicated that adding 5.0% DDGS into broiler diets showed a beneficial effect on feed conversion ratio with the best performance index from 8-14 d of age. Therefore, results suggest that DDGS can be safely added into diet as an alternative source of protein and energy from 1 to 35 d of age up to 10.0% without negative effect on productive performance of broiler chicks.