Replacement of corn and soybean meal with corn gluten meal on rooster’s diet.

Using alternative feedstuffs to replace corn and soybean in domestic poultry diets, as agroindustry by-products, may reduce production costs. Corn gluten meal is a by-product resulting of corn processing to obtain oil and starch. Aiming to evaluate the use of this ingredient in rooster’s diet and its effects on sperm characteristics, 40 roosters with 68 to 72 weeks of age, randomly distributed in individual boxes, were tested. Two treatments were used: treatment 1 (control) - with corn and soybean meal, and treatment 2 - with 10% of corn gluten meal in the diet. Semen collection and body weight verification were performed during 4 weeks. Semen variables evaluated were volume, sperm concentration, motility, membrane integrity, acrosome integrity, and DNA integrity. Results showed that there was no significant difference between treatments, which allows the use of 10% of corn gluten meal in rooster’s diet. Therefore, corn gluten meal can be an alternative diet’s input, especially when there is corn or soybean market restriction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]