Abstract
An investigation was conducted on the growth response of broiler starter chicks fed diets of varying concentration of enzyme supplemented dried rumen digesta for 21 days. One hundred and fifty, 2-week old chicks were randomly allotted to 5 diets (CP=22%) containing enzyme fortified dried rumen digesta (EDRD) at 0, 2.5, 5.0, 7.5, 10.0% respectively. The reference (control= 0%EDRD) diet contained no EDRD. Results revealed that feed intake of the chicks increased linearly with the concentration of EDRD in diets (p<0.05). The body weight gain of chicks fed EDRD diets were superior to the control group (p>0.05). There was no significant difference in feed conversion ratio among the treatment groups (p>0.05) though control diet gave the best value of 2.32 while the least (2.46) was obtained from treatment group fed 10% EDRD. Cost benefit analysis showed that 10% EDRD diet gave the least cost per kilogram weight gain of the experimental chicks. This study suggests that dried rumen digesta when fortified with 0.2% cellulolytic enzyme “Hamacozyme®” could be tolerated up to 10% dietary level without compromising growth and will reduce cost per kilogram weight gain in broiler starter production.
