Effects of Corn Distillers Dried Grain with Solubles on Growth Performance and Economic Benefit of Meat Ducks

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the effects of different levels of corn distillers dried grain with solubles (DDGS) on the growth performance of meat ducks. To this end, a total of 450 Shuanggui-tou meat ducks with comparable body weights were treated with increasing concentration of DDGS. Compared to mock-treated group, the average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI) and feed to meat ratio (F:G) were measured. It was revealed that the addition of DDGS up to 24% in the diet remained ineffective for ADFI, ADG and F:G. However, there a tendency of decrease in ADG was observed when 32% DDGS was added in the feed. Taken together, our results demonstrate that the increase of DDGS in feed did not negatively affect the growth performance and subsequently can decrease the cost per unit weight gain. Therefore, the DDGS presents an alternative protein resource to meet ever-increasing demands of feed ingredients in poultry production sectors. With the continuous growth of livestock and poultry sectors, the shortage of feed ingredients (especially protein feed resources) is becoming a serious concern around the globe including China. To resolve this worldwide problem, development and utilization of unconventional and alternative protein resources have been considered (Xie et al., 2016). One of such alternatives is distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) which is a by-product of dry-grind ethanol production from various cereal grains including corn, sorghum, wheat and rye (Xu et al., 2010; Liu and Han, 2011; Villela et al., 2017). Corn DDGS is one of the most abundant by-products in ethanol processing