Dietary Hemicell® Improved Reproductive Performance of Broiler Breeders under Commercial Settings

Abstract

The objective of this work is to study the effect of dietary Hemicell®, a fermentation product that contains high amount of β-mannanase, on performance and health parameters of broiler breeders grown under commercial settings. Twenty six thousand broiler breeders of Ross 308 strain with an average egg production of 35% and 2600 roosters aged 26.5 weeks were used in this study and were subdivided equally into six individual environmentally controlled houses with 4333 hens per house and 10% roosters. Birds in three houses were fed regular diet provided by the Ross Company while those in the remaining three other houses were fed rations containing 250 g of Hemicell® per ton of finished feed for a period of 8.6 months. Hemicell® in breeder diets reduced feed cost and numerically improved number of total and hatching eggs per hen housed. It also increased hatchability by 0.32% during the 8.6 months trial period. Although Hemicell® improved yolk colour, it had no effect on other egg quality parameters such as egg weight and shell thickness. Regarding health parameters, Hemicell® reduced the incidence of pododermatitis in hens and increased the serum titer for NDV towards the end of the trial. Along with the little saving in feed cost, Hemicell® resulted in a gain of around 1.20 US dollar per hen housed. These results indicate that Hemicell® inclusion in the diets of broiler breeders is beneficial to parent flock growers and makes their operations more profitable.