2.3 Feed intake and growth performance
Daily feed intake was determined as the difference between the feeds offered and the refusals in the trough. The feed efficiency was calculated as the ratio between ADG (kg) and daily DMI (kg). To determine growth performance, the animals were weighed at the beginning of the experiment and then every 28 days (after a fasting for a 16 h) for the duration of the experiment. The ADG was calculated as the ratio between total BW gain and experimental period (229 days).