Effects of diets of varying energy concentrations on the growth and carcase composition of geese

Two hundred and eighty eight-d-old goslings were allocated at random to one of 18 groups, each group comprising 8 of each sex. Three starter and three grower diets (both 11, 12, 13 MJ AME/kg) were fed and were combined in a factorial design to give 9 treatments. The starter diets were given for 4 weeks and the grower diets from weeks 5 to 9 inclusive. Body weight was unaffected by treatment, but the males were significantly heavier than the females. Food intake declined significantly as the dietary energy concentration increased. The efficiency of food utilisation of birds fed on the starter diet with the lowest energy concentration was significantly less than that of birds fed on the other diets. Birds fed on the grower diet with the highest energy concentration gave significantly better FCE than those fed on the other diets. There was no evidence to suggest that the treatments had any significant effect on carcase components and chemical composition of the geese. Oleic acid was significantly depressed and linoleic acid concentration increased as the energy concentration of the diets increased. However, this may reflect the higher fat concentrations in the diets with the higher energy concentrations.