Table 1. Ingredients and nutrient composition of the basal diet and experimental diet

Items Basal diet
Ingredients (%)
 Corn 58.73
 Soybean meal (46% crude protein) 24.47
 Corn gluten meal 5.77
 Tallow 5.55
 Salt 0.20
 Monodicalcium phosphate 1.48
 Limestone 1.20
 DL-Methionine (85%) 0.32
 L-Lysine-HCl (50%) 0.58
 L-Threonine (98.5%) 0.10
 Choline (50%) 0.10
 NaHCO3 0.10
 Vitamin premix1) 0.10
 Mineral premix2) 0.10
 Celite3) 1.20
 Total 100.00
Calculated energy and nutrient content4)
 AMEn (kcal/kg) 3,200
 Crude protein (%) 19.54
 Lysine (%) 1.16
 Methionine + cysteine (%) 0.91
 Threonine (%) 0.83
 Tryptophan (%) 0.21
 Calcium (%) 0.79
 Available phosphorus (%) 0.40
Provided per kilogram of the complete diet: vitamin A, 12,000 IU; vitamin D3, 4,000 IU; vitamin E, 80 IU; vitamin K3, 4 mg; vitamin B1, 4 mg; vitamin B2, 10 mg; vitamin B6, 6 mg; vitamin B12, 20 μg; biotin, 0.2 mg; vitamin B5, 20 mg; folic acid, 2 mg; niacin, 60 mg; antioxidant, 2 mg.
Provided per kilogram of the complete diet: zinc, 100 mg; manganese, 120 mg; iron, 60 mg; copper, 16 mg; cobalt, 1 mg; iodine, 1.25 mg; selenium, 0.3 mg.
Vitamin C (Vitamin C coated 970 g/kg, Zhejiang Mingzhu Animal Health Products, Hangzhou, China) was added at the level of 200 mg/kg in replace of celite.
Calculated values from NRC and Ross 308 manual [16,17].
AMEn, nitrogen-corrected apparent metabolizable energy.