Effect of sex, grains Type and multiple enzymes in production Performance of broiler (Ross 308)

Abstract

An experiment was carried out at Poultry Research Station of Office of Agricultural Research over period from 9/2 to 15/3/2016 to evaluate the enzyme supplementation to corn- or wheat-soy-based diet on performance, of sexed broilers. A total of eight hundred day-old chicks were used. For each sex, chicks were distributed according to a completely randomized block experimental design, consisting of 4 treatments, with 4 replicates of 25 birds each. Treatments were evaluated following a factorial arrangement (2×2×2), with 2 cereal types (corn or wheat), 2 enzymes (with or without) and 2 sexes (males or females corn). Birds were fed on iso-caloric and iso-nitrogenous diets were formulated in three phases (a starter from 1 to 10 d of age; a grower from 11to 24 d of age; a finisher from 25 to 35 d of age) of broiler feed. Performance (body weight (BW), gain (BWG), feed consumption (FC), feed conversion ratio (FCR)), were studied. Results showed that birds fed (males or females) wheat based-diets achieved significantly (P<0.0001) greater BW, BWG and FCR and lower FC than their counterparts fed corn–based diets at all ages studied. Exogenous enzyme supplementation had significantly improved BW at age 14 and 35 days and BWG during periods from 8-14, 29-35 and 1-35 days of age for both sexes. Males, but not females, fed enzyme-containing diets exhibited positive and significant (P<0.0218) response in final BW and BWG. Furthermore, dietary enzyme had significantly (P<0.0242) effect on FC only for both sexes. FCR was not affected by enzyme supplementation. With respect of sex effect, males achieved greater BW and BWG and lower FC than females but FCR was no affected by sex differences. The results obtained in the present study indicate that using wheat as a sole cereal grain in broiler diets either supplemented with exogenous enzyme or not had positive and significant on broiler performance than those fed corn-based diets