Effects of Dietary Rice Offal Inclusion Level and Enzyme (Natuzyme) Supplementation on the Performance and Nutrient Digestibility of Finisher Broiler Chicken

An eight-week study was carried out to determine the effect of dietary rice offal inclusion levels and Natuzyme® enzyme supplementation on performance of broiler chicken. Two hundred and ten 7-day old broiler chicks of Arbor Acre strain were randomly allocated to seven dietary treatments groups with each treatment having thirty birds. The experiment had two phases; starter (28 days) and finisher phase (28 days). The seven dietary treatments were 0% (T1) without enzyme and without rice offal, 5% (T2 and T3) with and without enzyme, 10% (T4 and T5) with and without enzyme, and 15% (T6 and T7) with and without enzyme supplementation at 250 mg per kg diet. The experiment was a 2 x 3 factorial in a completely randomized design having treatment groups replicated three times, and each replicate had 10 birds, which were randomly allocated to the experimental diets. Performance at the starter phase showed no significant differences (P>0.05) across the treatment groups for the main effect, interaction and treatment combination. There was non-significant difference (P>0.05) for rice offal level main effect. At finisher level, significant differences (P<0.05) occurred in the enzyme level and all were significantly higher at 0.025%. No statistical differences (P>0.05) for interaction. Results of the nutrient digestibility showed significant differences (P<0.05) in the rice offal level for ash and NFE, but no difference in the enzyme levels for main effect and interaction. Significant (P<0.05) differences occurred in the treatments combination for dry matter and crude protein. Broiler starter and finisher performed better at 0.025% enzyme supplementation of rice offal.

It was recommended that 0.025% enzyme should be included in rice offal and 15% of the enzyme treated rice offal should be used in finisher broiler diets.