Effect of different sources of dietary fibre on growth performance, intestinal morphology and caecal carbohydrases of domestic geese.

1. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of dietary fibre sources on growth and on the development of the gastro-intestinal tract in growing geese. 2. Six-week-old female White Roman geese were divided at random into 6 groups with 6 dietary treatments. Diets were isoenergetic and isonitrogenous and contained alfalfa meal, barley bran, rice hulls, cellulose, pectin or lignin as the major dietary source of fibre. 3. Food intake was significantly higher in the barley bran group than in the other groups. Both daily weight gain and food conversion of the pectin and alfalfa meal groups were lower than those of the other groups. 4. In the 9-week-old geese, the relative weight and the length of the small intestine did not significantly differ among treatment groups. However, the relative weight was significantly lightest and the caecal length was significantly shortest (P < 0.05) in the pectin group. 5. Activities of amylase and cellulose hydrolases of the caecal contents were also highest in the pectin group. 6. From SEM micrographs, no morphological damage of the villi was observable in the different intestinal segments of the geese in any of the treatments.