Potential Feeding Value of Deoiled Rice Bran by Japanese Quails. 1. The Metabolisable Energy Content

The apparent metabolisable energy (AME) and N-corrected ME (AMEn) of deoiled rice bran (DORB) were determined with adult quails at 6 and 10- week of age. The DORB obtained from two types of extraction process, Batch (DORB-B) and the Continuous (DORB-C), was each included in a practical type of the reference diet at 20 or 40% level. The analysed crude protein, ether extract, total ash, calcium, phosphorus, glucose and starch content of DORB-B and DORB-C were found at 19.0, 0.79, 17.05, 0.11, 1.92, 2.3, 11.22, and 15.02, 1.56, 13.0, 0.40, 2.76, 2.16, 19.0, respectively. The level of inclusion of DORB in diet appeared to exert a significant effect on the AME and AMEn values. When bioassayed at 20% inclusion level the DORB was found to have a significantly (p<0.01) lower value than that obtained at 40% inclusion level. However, no significant effect of age of quails on the AME values of DORB was evident. The ME bioassays with quails gave significantly (p<0.01) higher AME values for DORB-C than DORB-B thereby indicating that the continuous system of solvent extraction of rice bran is superior to the batch system from this point of view. The AME value of DORB predicted from its chemical composition also revealed that the DORB-C contained approximately 15% more energy than that in DORB-B.