The nutritional value of algae for poultry. dried chlorella in broiler diets¹

Abstract

1. The nutritional value of a sample of algae meal, mainly Chlorella, was assessed in two chick and two broiler trials. The algae were drum‐dried after harvesting from sewage ponds by centrifugation. 2. Diets formulated by linear programming contained between 60 and 150 g algae meal/kg by substituting algae meal and sorghum for fish meal, soyabean meal and maize in a control diet. 3. The effects of the dietary algae meal ranged from nil to a significant depression of growth rate and food utilisation. In certain cases growth retardation was associated with depressed food consumption. 4. The metabolisable energy concentration of the algae meal was estimated to be 11–62 MJ/kg and the nitrogen absorption coefficient 0.81.