Effect of diets containing raw and extrusion‐cooked rice bran on growth and efficiency of food utilization of broilers

1. Meat strain chicks were fed on diets containing 600 g rice bran/kg for the 7 to 8 week period required to reach broiler weight. 2. Extrusion cooking of rice bran resulted, in improved chick weight gain and food efficiency for the first two weeks of feeding, but this advantage was lost by the end of the feeding period. 3. Addition of 10 g calcium/kg to the stabilised rice bran diet prevented the decline in performance after two weeks of age, and birds fed on this diet continued to gain at an increasing rate until the end of the experiment. 4. Calcium supplementation of stabilised rice bran diets produced significantly greater gains and superior food utilisation compared to stabilised rice bran diets without added calcium. 5. Calcium supplementation did not affect weight gain of chicks fed on diets containing raw rice bran. 6. Taste panel evaluation of meat from birds fed on diets containing raw rice bran, stabilised rice bran, or no rice bran indicated a significant preference in only one combination tested. Any ‘off flavour could not be related to dietary treatment.