Efficacy of a novel protease produced by fermentation in Bacillus Licheniformis on growth performance of broiler chickens fed a wheat-soybean meal-based diet

This study investigated the efficacy of a novel microbial serine sfericaseendopeptidase expressed in Bacillus licheniformis, in broilers fed wheat and soybean mealbased diets under simulated commercial conditions.A total of 576, male, day-old Ross 308 broilers were used in this 35-day study in a randomizedcomplete block design. The study contained 2 treatments, each containing 24 replicates. Thecontrol cohort was fed a basal diet meeting Ross 308 nutrient requirements. This diet wasthen supplemented with 30,000 NFP/kg feed protease and represented the secondtreatment. The experimental diets were fed as crumbs during starter (0-14d) and pelletsduring grower (14-28d) and finisher (28-35d) phases. Feed and water were supplied adlibitum. Average daily feed intakes (ADFI) and average body weights (ABW) were recordedper pen at 0, 14, 28 and 35-d and average daily weight gain (ADWG) and mortality-adjustedfeed conversion ratios (FCRc) were calculated. Data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA withblocks using Genstat 19.The in-feed recovery of protease in starter, grower and finisher feeds were 27,740, 30,460and 29,520 NFP/kg, respectively. The ABW of birds fed diets supplemented with proteasewere +17%, +13%, and +11.9% higher (P<0.05) during starter, grower, and finisher phases,respectively. The ADFI was also higher (P<0.05) during starter (+2.5%), grower (+5.6%), andfinisher phase (+7.1%) in birds fed diets containing protease compared with the control. This improvement in ABW and ADFI in protease fed birds was reflected in significantly lower FCRvalues during starter (-12%) and grower (-5.2%) phase only. Over the entire trial duration (0-35d), birds receiving the diet that was supplemented with protease had +6.3% and+3.3% higher (P<0.05) ADWG and ADFI, respectively, and -5.1% lower (P<0.05) FCRc valuescompared to un-supplemented control birds. The overall mortality remained low (3.2%).It can be concluded that this novel sfericase protease is effective in improving broiler growthperformance and can be used in animal production industry to optimize broiler performance