INFLUENCE OF ENZYMES ON PERFORMANCE OF BROILERS FED SUNFLOWER-CORN BASED DIETS

Poultry Research Institute, Murree Road, Shamsabad, Rawalpindi, Pakistan

Abstract

    A 42-days trial was conducted to study the influence of exogenous enzymes supplementation to sunflower-corn based diet on digestive and performance traits in broilers. There were three treatments (control, Hamecozyme and Rovabio supplemented diets) and three replicates (20 broiler chicks per replicate) per treatment. At the end of the trial, birds fed the enzymes supplemented diets ate more and grew faster (p<0.05) and had better feed conversion (p<0.05) than those fed the control diet. Also enzymes supplementation improved (p<0.05) apparent faecal digestibilities of dry matter, organic matter, crude protein, ether extract, starch and gross energy. Enzymes supplementation improved (p<0.05) the dressing percentage; however, reduced (p<0.05) relative proventriculus and gizzard weight and also reduced (p<0.05) relative length of total GIT, duodenum and jejunum and ileum. Whereas, non-significant (p>0.05) difference was observed in meat composition among the all groups. Mortality rate was considerably low in enzyme treated groups. Sticky droppings caused by sunflower-corn based feeding were also mitigated by enzyme feeding. The results indicated that enzyme supplementation reduced the relative cost per unit weight gain. It was concluded that enzymes supplementation to sunflower-corn based diets improved digestibility of nutrients and performance of broilers.

Keywords: Broiler, enzyme, body weight, feed conversion ratio, digestibility.