Performance and nutrient digestibility in broiler chicks as influenced by multienzyme addition to starter diets containing palm kernel meal

This study was conducted to investigate the performance and nutrient digestibility in broiler chicks as influenced by multi-enzyme (Hemicell +Roxazyme G) addition to starter diets containing palm kernel meal. Nine experimental diets were formulated such that diet 1 which served as control contained 0 % PKM without enzyme supplementation. Diet 2, 3, 4 and 5 contained 10, 20, 30 and 40 % PKM levels respectively with multi-enzyme supplementation while diets 6, 7, 8 and 9 contained 10, 20, 30 and 40 % PKM inclusion levels respectively without multi-enzyme supplementation. Five hundred and forty (540) day old hybro broilers of mixed sex in ratio (1: 1) were randomly assigned to nine diets in a completely randomized design. Each treatment was replicated thrice with 20 birds per replicate. The experiment lasted 35 days. The results showed that nutrient digestibility in the control and 10 % PKM with enzyme supplementation were similar but were significantly (P<0.05) higher than other PKM diets with or without supplementation. There was significant (P<0.05) improvement in body weight and body weight gain and reduce feed intake with supplementation. Birds fed with 20 % PKM with enzyme showed similarity with control birds in all the performance parameters measured. Enzyme addition significantly (P<0.05) reduced cost of feed consumed at 30 % level of inclusion with PKM while cost per kilogram weight gain and cost of production were lower at 20 % PKM level.