Abstract
A four- week study was conducted to determine the effects of feeding rice milling waste (RMW) and supplementary enzyme (Roxazyme G2®) on the performance of broiler chicks. One hundred and twenty (120) 7-day old broiler chicks of Anak strain were randomly divided into eight groups of 15 birds each. The groups were randomly assigned to 8 isocaloric (2.85 Mcal of ME/kg) and isonitrogenous (22.00% crude protein) diets in a 4 × 2 factorial arrangement involving a control (0%), three levels (10, 15 and 20%) of RMW and two enzyme levels (0 and 0.02%). Each treatment was replicated three times with five birds per replicate. Results show that feed intake, average daily weight gain, protein efficiency ratio, costs of daily feed intake and feed cost per kg weight gain were significantly (P<0.05) different among the treatment diets. Haematological values such as Haemoglobin concentration (Hb), mean cellular volume (MCH), mean cellular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC) and mean cell volume (MCV) were not significantly (P>0.05) affected by the treatments. Enzyme supplementation resulted in a significant (P<0.05) reduction in feed intake and enhanced significantly (P<0.05), the performance of birds that consumed such enzyme supplemented diets. It was concluded that up to 20% RMW can be included in broiler starter diet without any adverse effect on growth performance of birds. However, the significant increase in feed cost per kg weight gain emanating from the inclusion of enzyme in some of the diets may negate the positive effect that Roxazyme G2®enzyme had on growth performance of the broiler chicks. Key words: Rice milling waste, enzyme, diets, broiler chicks, growth performance.
Highlights
Developing countries like Nigeria is facing a big problem of protein malnutrition
The significant increase in feed cost per kg weight gain emanating from the inclusion of enzyme in some of the diets may negate the positive effect that Roxazyme G2®enzyme had on growth performance of the broiler chicks
The proximate composition of the rice milling waste used in formulating the experimental diets is presented in Table 2, while Table 3 shows the effect of rice milling waste and supplementary enzyme on growth performance of broiler chicks
Summary
Developing countries like Nigeria is facing a big problem of protein malnutrition. Animal protein is essential in human nutrition in order to solve the problem of kwashiorkor which is a resultant effect of malnutrition (Ojewole, 1993; Oladeebo et al, 2007). The major factor militating against intensive animal production in Nigeria is the high cost of feed and feed ingredients, especially the conventional energy and protein feed ingredients like maize, soybean cake and groundnut cake (Ani et al, 2012). The ever-increasing cost of poultry feeds with the attendant increase in the cost of chicken and eggs shows that there is the need to explore the use of alternative and non-conventional feed ingredients that are cheaper and locally available One of such alternative feed ingredients is Rice Milling Waste (RMW). The use of rice milling waste as an ingredient in animal feeds, especially ruminants and poultry has been well documented (Dafwang and Shwarmen, 1996; Awesu et al, 2002). The present study was designed to investigate the dietary effect of rice milling waste and supplementary enzyme (RoxazymeG2®) on performance of broiler chicks
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