Nutritional evaluation of meat meals for poultry. I. Variation in quality and its association with chemical composition and ash and lipid factors

Abstract

On the basis of chick growth and efficiency of feed conversion, wide variation in the nutritional value of Australian meat meals has been observed, with all samples inferior in value to imported fish meal. No necessary relationship was observed between the crude protein and fat contents of the meals and the chick growth-promoting ability or efficiency of feed conversion. Small variations in growth response were significantly associated with the amount of ash contributed by meat meals to diets. However, ash was not the major cause of the differences between high and low quality meals. The addition of ash or ether extract from low quality meat meal to high quality meal did not indicate the presence of growth-depressing or toxic factors in these fractions. The results are interpreted as indicating that neither total protein content, ash content, or lipid content, nor ash or lipid toxic factors was the main cause of variation in the nutritional value of the meat meals studied.