Table 1.
The ingredients and nutritional composition of basal-diets.
| Ingredients, % | Control | Horsetail | Spirulina |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yellow corn | 48.90 | 35.21 | 52.51 |
| Wheat | 20.00 | 20.00 | 20.00 |
| Soybean meal (48% crude protein) | 18.73 | 16.50 | - |
| Horsetail | - | 15.00 | - |
| Spirulina | - | - | 15.00 |
| Calcium carbonate | 10.00 | 9.40 | 9.40 |
| Dicalcium phosphate | 1.52 | 1.52 | 1.52 |
| Salt | 0.32 | 0.32 | 0.32 |
| Soybean oil | 1.06 | 1.30 | 0.50 |
| Vitamin–mineral mix | 0.50 | 0.50 | 0.50 |
| DL-Met | 0.12 | 0.05 | 0.05 |
| L-Lys HCl | 0.05 | 0.20 | 0.20 |
| Chemical composition (%) | |||
| AMEn (kcal/kg) | 2763 | 2698 | 2875 |
| Crude protein | 15.49 | 15.60 | 15.62 |
| Crude fiber | 2.60 | 3.95 | 2.23 |
| Ca | 4.36 | 4.33 | 4.41 |
| Available P | 0.35 | 0.35 | 0.36 |
| Na | 0.16 | 0.15 | 0.16 |
| Available Met | 0.34 | 0.25 | 0.35 |
| Available Met+Cys | 0.63 | 0.52 | 0.94 |
| Available Lys | 0.75 | 0.79 | 0.73 |
Control: basal-diet without feed supplements; Horsetail: basal-diet including 15% horsetail, not fed to animals but used to formulate the different feed mixtures (0, 0.25, and 0.50%); Spirulina: basal-diet including 15% spirulina, not fed to animals but used to formulate the different feed mixtures (0, 1, and 2%); AMEn: nitrogen-corrected apparent metabolizable energy.