Effect of supplemental enzymes in diets containing yellow maize or pearl millet(pennisetum typhoides) as the principal source of energy in broiler chicken.

An experiment was conducted to study the performance of broiler chicks(2 to 35 d of age) fed diets containing pearl millet (PM, Pennisetum typhoides), totally replacing (w/w) yellow maize (YM) with and wihtout supplementing non-starch polysaccharide (NSP), hydrolyzing enzymes @ 0.5g/kg diet. Enzyme preparation contained amylase 2,400 units, hemi-cellulase 5,400 units, cellulase 12,000 units, protease 2,400 units and beta-glucanase 106 units/g. Each diet was fed to ten replicantes (five female Vencob broilers/replicate) housed in stainless steel battery brooders. The estimated metabolizable energy (ME) contents of YM and PM were 3494 and 3439 kcal/kg, respectively. Replacement of YM with PM did not influence the body weight gain, feed efficiency, ready to cook yield, relative weights of giblet, liver, abdominal fat, intestine and spleen, and length of intestine. The relative weight of gizzard decreased. Antibody titers against SRBC at 10 post inoculation increased in broiler fed PM based diet compared to YM fed birds. Total and LDL cholesterol concentrations decreased in serum, while protein content in liver and breast muscle increased on PM based diets compared to those fed YM. The growth, feed efficiency, carcass variables, immunological traits, triglycerides and HDL-chloesterol in serum were not affected by supplementing NSP hydrolyzing enzymes to YM or PM based diets. LDL-chloesterol in YM and PM fed birds, total chloesterol in YM fed broiler decreased, while protein content in breast muscle increased with incorporation of enzymes in diets based on both energy sources. Based on the results, it is concluded that maize can be replaced in toto with pearl millet on weight basis without affecting weight gain, feed efficiency and carcass yields. Further, replacing maize with pearl millet resulted in improvement in immunological traits, reduction in LDL and total cholesterol in serum, and increased protein accretion in tissue of broilers. Though supplementing NSP hydrolyzing enzymes failed to influence growth and feed efficiency, the LDL and total cholesterol concentrations in serum decreased, while protein concentration in liver and breast muscle increased with enzyme supplementation.