Dietary effect of rice milling waste and supplementary enzyme on performance of broiler chicks

A four- week study was conducted to determine the effects of feeding rice milling waste (RMW) and supplementary enzyme (Roxazyme G2®) on the performance of broiler chicks. One hundred and twenty (120) 7-day old broiler chicks of Anak strain were randomly divided into eight groups of 15 birds each. The groups were randomly assigned to 8 isocaloric (2.85 Mcal of ME/kg) and isonitrogenous (22.00% crude protein) diets in a 4 × 2 factorial arrangement involving a control (0%), three levels (10, 15 and 20%) of RMW and two enzyme levels (0 and 0.02%). Each treatment was replicated three times with five birds per replicate. Results show that feed intake, average daily weight gain, protein efficiency ratio, costs of daily feed intake and feed cost per kg weight gain were significantly (P<0.05) different among the treatment diets. Haematological values such as Haemoglobin concentration (Hb), mean cellular volume (MCH), mean cellular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC) and mean cell volume (MCV) were not significantly (P>0.05) affected by the treatments. Enzyme supplementation resulted in a significant (P<0.05) reduction in feed intake and enhanced significantly (P<0.05), the performance of birds that consumed such enzyme supplemented diets. It was concluded that up to 20% RMW can be included in broiler starter diet without any adverse effect on growth performance of birds. However, the significant increase in feed cost per kg weight gain emanating from the inclusion of enzyme in some of the diets may negate the positive effect that Roxazyme G2®enzyme had on growth performance of the broiler chicks.Keywords: Rice milling waste, enzyme, diets, broiler chicks, growth performance.African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(34), pp. 5326-533