EFFECT OF CHICKEN AGE ON THE NUTRITIVE-VALUE OF DIETS WITH GRADED ADDITIONS OF FULL-FAT SUNFLOWER SEED

1. Diets containing increasing amounts (80, 160 and 240 g/kg) of hulle d full-fat sunflower seed (HFFSS) were evaluated for digestibility of nutrients and AME(n) content with broiler chickens at 2 different ages (10 to 12 d and 27 to 29 d). 2. The age of chickens and dietary conce ntration of HFFSS had no major effect on the apparent digestibility of protein N and single amino acids. The differences observed were gener ally small and attained statistical significance only with glutamic ac id, histidine, arginine, phenylalanine and isoleucine digestibilities. 3. The age effect on the apparent digestibility coefficients for crud e fat and total fatty acids was dependent on the dietary concentration of HFFSS. Significant interactions between age and inclusion rate wer e observed for fat and individual fatty acids digestibilities. 4. AME( n) (MJ/kg) increased significantly as the inclusion level of HFFSS inc reased. However, AME(n) content was not affected by bird age or by the interaction between age and inclusion rate.