Effects of Enzymes and Combination of Enzymes on Apparent Metabolisable Energy Value of Wheat Offal with Chicken

Abstract

Aim: To quantify the increase in the metabolisable energy value of wheat offal supplemented with enzyme and enzyme cocktails and to investigate the complementary effect of enzymes used as cocktail. Study Design: Completely randomized design was used with twenty four adult cockerels of similar weight (2.2 Kg) distributed into eight treatments with three replicates per treatment. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Animal Production, University of Ilorin. The experiment lasted for three days (72 hours). Methodology: Three enzymes (Xylanase, Multipurpose and phytase) were used individually, in pairwise combination and combination of the three enzymes while the treatment with no enzyme was the control. The birds were starved of feed for 21 hours prior to the commencement of the experiment. They were then intubated with the respective treatment. Feacal samples were collected over a period of 24 hours after intubation. The feacal samples were subjected to gross energy (GE) determination. Apparent metabolisable energy (AME) was then calculated. Results: All enzyme treatments significantly (P=.05) increased the AME of wheat offal compared to the control. Among the three individual enzymes the multipurpose enzyme was significantly (P=.05) better than each of the other two while the effect of phytase was the least. There were complementary effects between the enzymes when used as cocktails. Cocktail of the three enzymes gave the significantly best (P=.05) effect on AME among the cocktails and among the treatments with enzymes. However effect of phytase in the cocktail was least compared to xylanase and multipurpose enzyme. Conclusion: It was concluded that exogenous enzymes can be used to increase the calorific value of high fibre feed stuffs. Cocktail of two carbohydrases of different profile and activity is better than individual enzymes.