An investigation of the effects of using an enzyme-probiotic combination on broilers performance

BACKGROUND: Growth promoters are chemical and biological
substances that are added to livestock food with the aim
to improve the growth of chickens in fattening and the utilization
of food, and in this way achieve better production and financial
results. OBJECTIVES:An experiment was conducted to evaluate
the effects of enzyme complex, probiotic, and their combination
on performance of broilers fed a basal wheat-barley-soybean
meal diet from 1 to 47 d of age. METHODS:Atotal of 480-dayold
male broiler chicks (Arbor Acres) were randomly assigned to
6 treatments, with 4 replicate cages per treatment and 20 birds per
cage. The experiment consisted of a 3×2 factorial arrangement
of the treatments, with 3 concentrations of enzyme complex (0,
half of the commercial suggested level or commercial suggested
level) and 2 concentrations of probiotic (0 and suggested level).
RESULTS: Results showed that the suggested level of enzyme
complex could improve body weight and feed conversion ratio
(p<0.05), but addition of probiotic only decreased the feed
conversion ratio (p<0.05). There was no interaction between
enzyme complex and probiotic on performance (p>0.05).
Probiotic supplementation did not improve the efficacy of
enzyme complex at any levels. The examination of length and
relative weight of different regions of intestine showed that only
enzyme complex could decrease the relative weight of duodenum
and length of jejunum; however, there was no interaction
between treatments for these parameters. CONCLUSIONS: This
research did not demonstrate any interaction effect between
enzyme complex and probiotic on broilers performance fed
wheat-barley-soybean meal diet.