Abstract

Physiological characteristics of meat-type chicken such as growth traits, serum biochemical metabolites and mineral concentrations, serum enzyme activity, and gut flora were studied by means of 625 day-old chicks which randomly assigned to five treatments with five replicates in a completely randomized design. Four different types of cereal-based diets (wheat, and barley with or without exogenous multi-enzyme supplement) were used as experimental groups and a corn-based diet was also considered to serve as control group. All diets had similar contents of crude protein, energy, and total non-starch polysaccharides (NSP). Results indicated that enzyme supplemented diets improved daily weight gain and feed conversion ratio than barley and wheat diets without enzyme significantly (P<0.01). Feeding wheat and barley diets decreased the serum cholesterol, triglyceride and glucose concentrations than control group significantly (P<0.01). Also using of these two type of cereals without enzyme supplementation resulted in reduced serum mineral concentration and undesirable effect on gut flora (P<0.01). Total gram negative bacteria of the ileum was decreased, however lactic acid and bifida bacteria population were increased by supplementation of wheat and barley diets with exogenous multi-enzyme significantly (P<0.01). The serum activities of α-amylase and lipase were increased in chicks fed wheat and barley diets when compared to the control group fed on corn diet, but enzyme supplementation significantly reduced the serum activities of α-amylase and lipase (P<0.01).

Highlights

  • Alternative grains can be successfully replaced for corn in poultry diets

  • Equal fractions of non-starch polysaccharides (NSP) from wheat and barley were included in chicken diets with and without exogenous multi-enzyme to compare the negative effects on growth, serum concentration of metabolites and minerals, intestinal bacterial population, and serum enzyme activity of α-amylase and lipase compared to corn-based diet

  • Results indicated that birds fed wheat significantly (P

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Summary

Introduction

Alternative grains can be successfully replaced for corn in poultry diets. Wheat and barley are generally used as major sources of energy in poultry diets. Though the major components of these grains are starch and proteins, they have considerable content of non-starch polysaccharides (NSPs), derived from the cell walls [15,17]. The content and structure of NSP polymers vary between different grains, which affect their nutritive value and anti-nutritional impacts [17]. Few researches have shown the magnitude of adverse effect of equal fractions of NSP from different sources. Equal fractions of NSP from wheat and barley were included in chicken diets with and without exogenous multi-enzyme to compare the negative effects on growth, serum concentration of metabolites and minerals, intestinal bacterial population, and serum enzyme activity of α-amylase and lipase compared to corn-based diet

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