Evaluation of Commercial Multi-enzyme on Performance of Laying Hens Fed with Palm Kernel Cake

Abstract

Palm kernel cake (PKC) has been used in poultry diets with limited amounts due to its high anti-nutritional factors such as the non-starch polysaccharide. An experiment was designed to study the effect of the addition of a commercial multi-enzyme (DGDP) into diets consist of PKC on the performance of laying hens. A control diet without PKC and diet with 7.5% and 15% PKC was formulated to meet the requirement of laying hens 5 dietary treatments were formulated. DGDP enzymes were added into diets consist of PKC. Each diet was fed to 7 replicates of 4 laying hens, and the performances were measured from 20 to 36 weeks of age. Results showed that the inclusion of 7.5 or 15% PKC in the diet did not affect feed intake, the egg production significantly, and the feed conversion ratio. The addition of enzymes into the diet with 7.5% PKC improved 3% egg production and 1.0% FCR but improved only 1.3% egg production and 0.6% FCR on diet with 15% PKC, these improvements, however, were not significantly different. The inclusion of PKC did not reduce the dry matter digestibility, and true metabolizable energy (TME) but reduced significantly protein- digestibility of the feed. The addition of the enzyme slightly improved the dry matter digestibility, and the TME increased 42 kcal/kg and 34 kcal/kg for the feed with 7.5% and 15% PKC, respectively. It is concluded that inclusion of PKC in laying hens diet did not reduce the egg production or impair the FCR, and supplementation of DGDP enzyme didnot improve the egg production or FCR.