Proteins are one of the major components of poultry feeds, supplied mainly through animal and vegetable protein supplements. Rice gluten meal, a vegetable protein supplement is the byproduct of starch industry, left after the starch is washed out of rice tips flour. It is insoluble in water and greyish (beige) in colour. It has 43% crude protein and 3300 k.cal/kg. energy. On the basis of high protein and energy it could be used in the poultry feeds. The meal is commercially available in the country.

The present study was planed to find out the effect of feeding different levels of rice gluten meal on the growth rate and feed utilization of broiler chicks and to determine the effect of different amino acids supplementation and mechanical treatment on the nutritive value of rice gluten meal. Two experiments were conducted using day old Hubbard' broiler chicks as the experimental birds.

In the first experiment RGM was used at different levels substituting soybean meal on protein equivalent basis. The results indicated that the best growth rate and feed consumption of the chicks were observed in the ration containing 10% RGM. However, there was a progressive decrease in the weight gain of the chicks when RGM level was increased beyond 15%. The chicks growth depression was the highest (P<0.01) when RGM was used as sole source of protein. The best chicks growth performance of the ration containing 10% rice gluten meal and 25% soybean meal might be due to complimentary effect of amino acids of the two vegetable protein sources, while the poor chicks growth performance and feed consumption on account of feeding higher levels (30 and 38%) of RGM might be due to the poor quality of protein or growth inhibitory factor(s) in the indigenous rice gluten meal. The feed efficiency of the chicks was also significantly (P<0.01) lower when RGM was used as the sole source of protein. A similar trend as that of weight gain was observed in carcase weight of the chicks fed different experimental rations. A significant (P<0.01) hypertrophy of the pancreas was recorded in the chicks fed ration (G) containing the highest level of RGM as compared to the control. This indicated the presence of some growth inhibitory factor(s) in the indigenous rice gluten meal.

In the second experiment effect of lysine and methionine supplementation and autoclave treatment on the inutritive value of rice gluten meal was studied. The lysine supplementation of RGM significantly improved the growth rate, feed consumption and feed efficiency of the chicks as compared to the control indicating that the meal was deficient in lysine. A further significant (P<0.01) improvement was observed in growth rate, feed consumption and feed efficiency of the chicks fed lysine supplemented and autoclaved RGM ration as compared to the control indicating that autoclave treatment might have removed or reduced the antinutritional factor(s) of RGM whereas the deficiency of lysine was compensated through synthatie lysine supplementation. There was no significant improvement in weight gain, feed consumption and feed efficiency of the chicks fed ration containing lysine + methionine supplementation as compared to the ration containing lysine supplementation. This showed that RGM was not deficient in methionine. A similar trend as that of weight gain was recorded in carcase weight of the chicks fed different experimental rations. There was observed a significant (P
CONCLUSION

Rice Gluten Meal (RGM) was deficient in lysine and contained some growth inhihitroy factor(s).

Autoclaving and lysine supplementation in rice gluten meal improved the nutritive value of the meal as indicated by better growth rate and best feed utilization for broilers.