This research was carried out to determine the nutritional value of pearl millet, and to evaluate their utilization as energetic source in broiler diets from 1 to 21 days old. Two experiment were conducted: in the first, the chemical composition (dry matter, crude protein, ether extract, calcium and phosphorus) and gross energy, apparent metabolizable energy corrected by nitrogen balance were determined. In the second experiment, the performance of broilers from 1 to 21 days old fed diets with 0, 10, 20, 30 and 40% of pearl millet were determined. A completely randomized design, in a 5 × 2 factorial arrangement (level of millet and sex), with four replicates and 20 birds per experimental unit, was used. The determined values of chemical composition were: dry matter (88.53%), gross energy (3,604 kcal/kg), crude protein (12.71%), crude fiber (5.40%), ether extract (3.10%), calcium (0.029%) and phosphorus (0.31%) and, in the second experiment, apparent metabolizable energy corrected by nitrogen balance (2,656 kcal/kg). The analyzed traits were: feed intake, weight gain and feed/gain ratio. The performance of broilers fed rations with higher levels pearl millet was better, which could be related to the increase of oil level in diet. The inclusion of pearl millet up to 20% is recommended in the rations for broilers from 1 to 21 days old.
digestibility; metabolizable energy; pearl mille; performance
