Abstract:
The study examined the effect of de-hulled sunflower meal (SFM) inclusion rate and
exogenous enzymes (EE) on broilers production performance. A four-feeding phase of pre-starter
(1–9 d), grower (10–20 d), finisher (21–28 d) and post-finisher (29–35 d) was used with SFM included
as low (BSL) and high (BSH) in all phases. BLS inclusion was 3% throughout phases and BSH
inclusion was 7.5%, 10%, 13% and 13.5% for the 4-phases. Each SFM had a negative control (NC)
(BSL− and BSH−) and positive (PC) (BSL+ and BSH+) control with additional 80 kcal Apparent
Metabolizable Energy. Enzymes: xylanase (X), xylanase + beta-glucanase (XB), xylanase + betaglucanase + protease (XBP) and xylanase + amylase + protease (XAP) were added to the NC and
PC to give 6 treatments. Pen body weight gain (BWG) and feed intake (FI) were determined at
9, 20, 28 and 35 d and feed conversion ratio (FCR) was calculated accordingly. Diets were fed ad
libitum to 1920 male Ross 308 broilers. Diet type, enzyme and diet by enzyme interactions were
not significantly different amongst treatment diets. During the pre-starter and the grower phase,
all studied parameters did not significantly differ from each other. All studied parameters were
significantly influenced by enzyme addition and diet-type and enzyme interaction at 35 d except for
diet type on FCR. Broilers fed BSH supplemented with XAP recorded the highest BWG (2.69 kg),
whereas broiler chickens on BSL and supplemented with XBP recorded the lowest BWG (2.60 kg).
SFM can be increased to 13% and 13.5% finisher and post-finisher diets without negatively affecting
performance, and X and XAP enzymes can improve BWG of broilers grown to 35 d.
