The effect of added oat hulls or sugar beet pulp to diets containing rapidly or slowly digestible protein sources on broiler growth performance from 0 to 36 days of age.

Abstract The effects of formulating broiler diets that contain sources of either rapidly or slowly digestible protein and two different dietary fiber sources on growth performance were studied in broilers chickens from 0 to 36 days of age. A total of 1,920 one-day-old, male Ross 708 broiler chickens were randomly allocated and housed in 48 floor pens (40 birds/pen) to one of four dietary treatments. Birds were allotted according to a completely randomized block design using a factorial arrangement of treatments with two protein digestion rates (rapidly or slowly) and two dietary fiber sources [3% oat hulls (OH) or 3% sugar beet pulp (SBP)] from 0 to 36 days of age. All diets were formulated to be isocaloric and isonitrogenous. Pen was the experimental unit for all variables studied (12 replicates/treatment). Data were analyzed using the MIXED procedure of SAS and the model included the main effects of protein digestion rate, dietary fiber source, and their interaction. There were three experimental feeding phases; starter (from d 0 to 14), grower (from d 14 to 28), and finisher (from d 28 to 36). Results indicated that broilers fed diets containing sources that supplied more rapidly digestible protein had 4% greater (P