Energy in poultry diets
While protein, vitamins and minerals are referred to as nutrients, energy -the 4th and most costly part of the diet- is not a nutrient but the property of energy yielding nutrients. Dietary nutrients that yield energy are protein, fat and carbohydrates. Dietary energy level is the main factor influencing feed intake, as birds will, under normal circumstances, eat to satisfy their energy needs. Therefore the dietary nutrients, protein vitamins and minerals should vary in relation to the dietary energy content of the diet, if they are not to become deficient, with low feed intakes, or overconsumed, with low energy diets. While there are a number of factors, such as level of protein, balance of essential amino acids and perhaps level of some of the other dietary nutrients, that can influence the cost of a diet, the level of dietary energy is usually the main factor influencing diet cost.
Effective poultry nutrition depends heavily on the quality of protein sources, with soybean meal (SBM) serving as the industry benchmark. This technical analysis, based on research and protocols established by Mahmoud Abdallah and the technical team at Advance Support , highlights the critical balance required during the thermal processing of soybeans to neutralize anti-nutritional factors (ANFs) without compromising...
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Opeadura Osunbami (Kalmbach Feeds) explains the influence of broiler breed on production outcomes and profitability, while adjusting digestible lysine and amino acid levels, in this Engormix interview at IPPE 2026 in Atlanta. ...
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FIGAP 2026: The Scientific And Technological Exhibition Of The Livestock Industry
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Diego Martinez (University of Arkansas) comments on his research on the classic net energy system and its ability to predict protein accretion in this Engormix interview at IPPE 2026 in Atlanta. ...
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Diego Martinez (University of Arkansas) explains how the Indicator Amino Acid Oxidation technique helps analyze amino acid utilization in broiler breeders, in this Engormix interview at IPPE 2026 in Atlanta. ...
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Henrique Brand, Regional Strategic Marketing – Specialty Nutrition – Americas at Evonik, discusses how producers are approaching energy efficiency and cost optimization today. He also explains the market trends driving the adoption of metabolic solutions such as GAA, highlighting their role in improving metabolism, and sustainability in animal nutrition.
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Victor Naranjo, Technical Director at Evonik Animal Nutrition, explains from a technical perspective what guanidinoacetic acid (GAA) is and how it supports animal energy metabolism. He also discusses its reliability during feed processing and handling, and outlines the key nutritional factors that must be considered to maximize the benefits of GAA in animal production systems. ...
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Angela Guaiume (Cargill) explains how monitoring hen body condition helps to improve egg production and feed efficiency, while also sustaining laying consistency and reducing feed costs, during this Engormix interview at IPPE 2026 in Atlanta. ...
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Introduction Increasing the efficiency of protein utilization is an important issue in livestock for production. Apart from the cost of protein (the input side), the issue is also driven to reduce nitrogen excretion (the output side) to limit the environmental impact of livestock production. The quantitatively most important role of dietary protein is to provide the amino acids for animal-derived products, such as meat, milk, and eggs. The similarities in the amino acids composition...
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Introduction There are several advantages stemming from crude protein (CP) reductions in diets for broiler chickens, including decreased nitrogen (N) excretion and ammonia (NH3) emissions coupled with improved litter quality resulting in enhanced bird welfare [1, 2]. Moreover, soybean meal inclusions are considerably lower in reducedCP diets. Australia, and many other countries, imports substantial quantities of soybean meal from South America, which is not compatible with...
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Optimizing Fat Incorporation in Broiler Feed A Cost-Effective and Nutritional Perspective Author: A.Ashraf Ali Introduction Fat is an essential component in broiler feed, serving as a highly concentrated energy source and playing a crucial role in growth performance, feed efficiency, and meat quality. Selecting the right fat source is critical to balancing cost-effectiveness, energy value, and essential fatty acid (EFA) requirements. In this article,...
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Dr. Shukun Yu has joined Univook Industry as Senior Consultant to spearhead the promotion of their innovative feed digestion simulation system, named Computer Controlled Simulated Digestion System, for monogastric animal nutrition
The feed industry welcomes back a familiar and influential figure, Dr. Shukun Yu, who has joined China-based Univook Industry as Senior Consultant. After a distinguished 32-year career with Danisco, DuPont, and IFF as...
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1. Introduction Broiler chicken feed represents approximately 75% of production costs, a figure that is expected to increase due to the commodity nature of animal feed ingredients, especially soybean oil, a primary raw material in feed production [1,2]. Currently, there are few alternative energy sources to soybean oil available for reducing production costs in poultry farming. Given these challenges, there is a growing need to explore alternative energy sources in broiler...
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Introduction Barley is one of the main cereals produced in Norway and is used in broiler feed in low amounts due to high content of non-starch polysaccharides (NSP) (Bedford 1995; Knudsen 2014; Svihus and Gullord 2002) and lower energy value compared to maize, wheat or sorghum (Choct and Annison 1990; Khalil et al. 2020). The NSP fractions comprising soluble βglucans and arabinoxylans have gel-forming characteristics and are known to increase intestinal viscosity (Choct 2006),...
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The use of barley in broiler diets is limited because of the presence of β-glucans, which negatively influence nutrient utilisation and bird performance. These negative effects may be partly overcome by exogenous carbohydrases containing β-glucanases. In the current study, the influence of a multi-component carbohydrase (Ronozyme multigrain, DSM Nutritional Products, Singapore) on nitrogen-corrected apparent metabolisable energy (AMEn; assay 1), and, apparent ileal digestibility...
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Feed represents 65-75% of total production cost while energy represents approximately 50% of the diet cost. Apparent metabolisable energy corrected to zero nitrogen retention (AMEn) is most commonly used in poultry feed formulation. AMEn, however, does not consider energy lost during digestion as heat increment (HI). AMEn minus HI gives net energy (NE) which is energy available to the bird. An equation to predict net energy for production of ingredients for layers has been developed at UNE....
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I. INTRODUCTION Necrotic enteritis (NE) is of great concern to the poultry industry due to its deteriorating impact on production and increasing mortality, resulting in a US$6 billion global economic loss (Wade and Keyburn, 2015). The causative agent of NE is Clostridium perfringens, a gram-positive spore-forming anaerobic bacterium. The subclinical form of NE is financially more devastating than the clinical form. This is due to a lack of obvious symptoms resulting in a delayed...
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I. INTRODUCTION Microbial enzymes are now routinely used in broiler chicken diets to reduce the effects of antinutritive factors (ANF) in feed and/or improve the digestion of nutrients (Bedford, 2011). There is a suite of enzymes that target ANF such as non-starch polysaccharides (NSP) and phytic acid as well as products which improve the digestion of nutrients such as protein and minerals. The major cereals used in poultry diets are wheat, maize, sorghum and barley. The objective of...
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Dr. Óscar Vázquez from Evonik highlights how high-digestibility ingredients, metabolic additives, and GuanAMINO supplementation improve energy utilization, reduce feed costs, and enhance broiler performance sustainably. ...
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Broiler trial in the Netherlands confirms 2018 EFSA scientific opinion on methionine sources while validating the experimental approach
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I. INTRODUCTION Modern broilers grow 5 times faster on 40% less feed than they did 60 years ago (Zuidhof et al., 2014). Because high body weight (BW) correlates negatively with reproduction and health (Decuypere et al., 2010), the severity of broiler breeder feed restriction increases every year relative to broiler growth potential. This intensifies competition for feed, resulting in unequal distribution of feed and poor flock uniformity. Achieving and maintaining high flock...
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I. INTRODUCTION Whole grain feeding (WGF) involves the partial substitution of ground grain with whole grain in boiler diets. Whole grain (WG), usually wheat, may be added either prior to (prepellet) or following (post-pellet) steam-pelleting. WGF generates heavier and presumably more functional gizzards, which are thought to be the genesis of responses in feed conversion ratios (FCR) and energy utilisation (Liu et al., 2015). However, post-pellet WGF also provides broilers with the...
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