THE EFFECT OF DIETARY ENERGY AND PROTEIN ON CARCASS COMPOSITION WITH A NOTE ON A METHOD FOR ESTIMATING CARCASS COMPOSITION.

Abstract THE importance of considering carcass composition of animals reared for meat purposes has long been appreciated (Lawes and Gilbert, 1859; Haecker, 1920; McMeekan, 1940). In large animals, especially swine, a great deal of work has been done in developing rations and methods of feeding which would produce carcasses of desired composition at the time of slaughter (Crampton et al., 1954; Hill and O’Carroll, 1962; and others). Although much work has been done in developing rations to finish chickens, there is little information available on the influence of diet on carcass composition at time of marketing except for some studies on the effect of hormones (Donovan and Sherman, 1960; and Bogdonoff et al., 1961) and antibiotics (Jukes et al., 1957). It is becoming increasingly important to consider not only weight gain and feed efficiency of meat animals but also their carcass composition. The increased demands of the processor for broilers of…