Supplementing Fiber-Degrading Enzymes to Broilers

Nutrition plays a vital role in rapid growth of broiler chicken. The feed cost of poultry production usually ranges between 65-75% of the total cost of production. Poultry diet is predominantly composed of cereals (maize, wheat, rice etc) and their byproducts (rice bran, rice polishing etc), vegetable protein (soybean meal, canola meal, rapeseed meal etc) plus animal protein (fish meal, blood meal, feather meal etc).Enzymes have been approved for use in poultry diets because they are natural fermented products and, therefore, will not create detrimental effect on the animal as well as on consumers. The use of enzymes in poultry feeds has predominantly been related to the hydrolysis of fiber or non-starch polysaccharide (NSP) fractions in cereal grains. The application of enzymes provides a lot of creative formulation with great flexibility and more effective use of vegetable protein sources and provides economic improvements in bird's performance. It also saves costs by permitting the greater use of less expensive raw material in poultry feeds.