Evaluation of Error Variance of Metabolizable Energy of Feed Ingredient

Abstract

Population standard deviation of nitrogen-corrected metabolizable energy of a certain diet, σ, when fed to individual chick, is evaluated to be 0.124kcal/g diet. Based on this value, population standard deviation of metabolizable energy of a feed ingredient, σ_ing estimated by feeding both test diet with 100α% of the ingredient and basal diet to r groups each of n chicks each is also calculafed from σ. At various n, r and α, σ_ing is calculated and presented in Table 1.
Formulas to calculate the confidence interval of metabolizable energy of an ingredient, ME_ing, and the least significant difference between two values ME_ing are presented with the examples of calculation.