Nutritional value of wheat bran in broiler chickens exposed to heat stress

摘要

Commercial broiler were used to compare the apparent metabolisable energy (AME) and crude protein digestibility values of the wheat bran in the chicken exposed to a normal (21°C) environment and to heat stress at 32°C. At 21°C, the AME value of the bran is higher than most values reported by the litterature. This could be due to the high level of starch and the poor level of fibre in our sample of wheat bran. Heat stress temperature resulted in significant (p<0,05) decrease in the AME and protein digestibility of the wheat bran. At 32°C, the AME and digestibility values decrease respectively by -5,6 and -13%. This should be accounted for in the feed processing chain.