Effect of Dietary Phytase Supplementation on Growth Performance, Organ Weight and Tibia Ash of Broilers

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary inclusion of phytase on the growth performance, organ weight, and tibia ash of broilers. A total of 1008 one-day-old Ross 308 broiler chicks (mixed gender) with body weight 42 ± 0.90 g (mean ± SD) were used in a trial for 32 d. Chicks were assigned to one of the two treatment diets. Each treatment consisted of 28 replicate cages, with 18 birds per cage. The dietary treatments were as follows: CON, basal diet; TRT1, basal diet + phytase 1,500 Fan Terminal Unit (FTU)/kg diet. Dietary inclusion of 1,500 FTU/kg phytase supplementation in broilers showed only slight improvements in daily feed intake (<i>P</i>=0.086) and feed conversion ratio (<i>P</i>=0.065) on day 9 compared with that in the control group. However, organ weights of the breast muscle, liver, spleen, kidney, and bursa of Fabricius were not affected by the dietary treatments. In addition, the dietary inclusion of 1,500 FTU/kg phytase supplementation in the broiler diet had no effect on tibia ash. The addition of 1,500 FTU/kg phytase in the basal diet of broilers did not have any adverse effect on growth performance, organ weight, and tibia ash, suggesting that phytase supplementation in broiler diets will exhibit comparable effects as that of corn-soybean meal-based diet.