Nitrogen-corrected True Metabolizable Energy and Amino Acid Digestibility of Chinese Corn Distillers Dried Grains with Solubles in Adult Cecectomized Roosters

This study was conducted to evaluate chemical composition, nitrogen-corrected true metabolizable energy (TMEn) and true amino acids digestibility of corn distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) produced in China. Twenty five sources of corn DDGS was collected from 8 provinces of China. A precision-fed rooster assay was used to determine TMEn and amino acids digestibility with 35 adult cecectomized roosters, in which each DDGS sample was tube fed (30 g). The average content of ash, crude protein, total amino acid, ether extract, crude fiber and neutral detergent fiber were 4.81, 27.91, 22.51, 15.22, 6.35 and 37.58%, respectively. TMEn of DDGS ranged from 1,779 to 3,071 kcal/kg and averaged 2,517 kcal/kg. Coefficient of variation for non-amino acid crude protein, ether extract, crude fiber and TMEn were 55.0, 15.7, 15.9 and 17.1%, respectively. The average true amino acid digestibility was 77.32%. Stepwise regression analysis obtained the following equation: TMEn, kcal/kg = −2,995.6+0.88×gross energy+49.63×a* (BIC = 248.8; RMSE = 190.8; p<0.01). Removing gross energy from the model obtained the following equation: TMEn, kcal/kg = 57.88×ether extracts+87.62×a* (BIC = 254.3, RMSE = 223.5; p<0.01). No correlation was found between color scores and lysine true digestibility (p>0.05). These results suggest that corn DDGS produced in China has a large variation in chemical composition, and gross energy and a* value can be used to generate TMEn predict equation.