Abstract:
Exogenous feed enzymes can limit the negative effect of anti-nutrients such as non-starch
polysaccharides present in maize and soybean meal based broiler diets, and thereby increase
the digestibility and nutritive value of the feed. A study was conducted to determine efficacy of
enzymes produced by Talaromyces versatilis in releasing energy and amino acids in broiler
feeds, and how that will effect production and slaughter parameters during a 35 day broiler
production cycle. The positive control diets were formulated to be lower in energy and amino
acid levels than the values used commercially. The negative control 1 diets were further reduced
in metabolisable energy, and the negative control 2 diets were reduced in amino acids compared
to the positive control diets. The negative control 3 diets were reduced in both metabolisable
energy and amino acids compared to the positive control diets. The Rovabio Advance enzyme
complex was then added to the positive control, the negative control 1 diets, the negative control
2 diets and the negative control 3 diets. The enzymes supplementation resulted in significant
improvements in body weight gain during the final week of the trial when compared to nonsupplemented
diets. The addition of the enzyme complex to diets with reduced amino acid
levels, also resulted in a significant improvement in feed conversion ratio and a tendency to
improve body weight gain compared to the positive control, during the final week of the trial.
Enzyme addition to the reduced energy and reduced energy and amino acid negative control
diets resulted in slight but non-significant improvements in 35 day body weight and body
weight gain over the 35 day period. The reduced energy and amino acid negative control diets,
also showed slight improvement in feed conversion ratio over the 35 day period, with the
addition of the enzyme. No improvements in any of the production parameters were observed,
with enzyme addition to the positive control diets. Therefore, it can be concluded from the
present study that enzymes produced by Talaromyces versatilis can improve production
parameters of broilers when added to maize and soybean meal based diets with reduced energy
and amino acid levels. Enzyme addition to the positive control diet, significantly improved
eviscerated carcass yield compared to the reduced energy and amino acid diets. No other
significant improvements were observed in any of the carcass parameters evaluated, due to
enzyme addition. Therefore, this study did not deliver significant evidence that enzyme
supplementation can improve slaughter parameters of broilers.
