THE NUTRITIVE VALUE OF CANADIAN MEAT MEALS FOR CHICKS

Abstract

Chick growth trials were conducted by five cooperating laboratories on five meat meals obtained from widely separated sources across Canada. The meat meals were tested by feeding them individually at a level of 12% in a broiler starter diet. There were three battery brooder pens of 15 male chicks each per ration at each of five locations, in two successive trials.Mean body weights at 4 weeks of age over all locations combined were in all cases lower on the meat meal diets than on a control diet containing no meat meal but using soybean meal as a primary source of protein. Growth on the meat meal diets ranged from 88% to 96% of that on the control diet in trial 1, and from 92% to 98% in trial 2. At the individual locations, there were 5 instances out of 50 in which growth on a meat meal diet exceeded that on a control diet.