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International Journal of Poultry Science

Year: 2007 | Volume: 6 | Issue: 5 | Page No.: 335-339
DOI: 10.3923/ijps.2007.335.339
Performance and Carcass Characteristics of Broiler Chickens Fed Diets Supplemented with Graded Levels of Roxazyme G®
A.B. Omojola and A.O.K. Adesehinwa

Abstract: The use of exogenous enzymes as feed additives is still undergoing a lot of research. A total of three hundred and sixty unsexed three week-old Abor Acre plus strain broiler chicken were randomly allocated to four experimental dietary treatments in a completely randomized design to evaluate the effect of Roxazyme® on performance and carcass characteristics of broiler chickens. The diets 1, 2, 3, and 4 contained 0, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3% enzyme supplementation respectively. The birds were fed the experimental diets for a 35-day period during which data were obtained on feed intake, weight gain, dry matter digestibility (DMD) and feed conversion ratio. At the end of the feeding trial, ten birds were sacrificed per replicate to evaluate carcass and meat characteristics. The inclusion of the exogenous enzyme did not significantly (P>0.05) improve the average weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio and DMD. The dressing percentage of birds fed the enzyme-supplemented diets was significantly (P<0.05) superior compared to the control. There were no significant differences between all the primal cuts except the head and neck of the birds on the control diet that were significantly (P<0.05) lower in weight. The inclusion of the enzyme did not (P>0.05) affect the relative weights of the kidney, gizzard, heart and the liver of all experimental birds. The flavour, tenderness and juiciness scores of the meat of birds fed the enzyme supplemented diets were significantly (P<0.05) higher than the control while the colour, texture and the overall acceptability were not significantly affected by the inclusion of the enzyme in the diet. The Waner Braztler shear force result showed no significant increase (P>0.05) in toughness in agreement with the sensory panel result that adjudged the meat from birds fed enzyme supplemented diets as more tender (P<0.05) than that of the control. The breast muscle of the chickens had higher cooking loss than the thigh muscle while the highest (P<0.05) cooking loss was recorded for both muscle parts of birds reared on 0.2% enzyme supplementation.

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How to cite this article
A.B. Omojola and A.O.K. Adesehinwa, 2007. Performance and Carcass Characteristics of Broiler Chickens Fed Diets Supplemented with Graded Levels of Roxazyme G®. International Journal of Poultry Science, 6: 335-339.

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