Journal of Applied Biosciences (J. Appl. Biosci.) [ISSN 1997 - 5902]
Volume 20: 1153 - 1158. Published August 7, 2009.
Performance of pullets fed on graded levels of rice offal supplemented with Roxazyme G® enzyme
Tuleun C.D.*^, Yaakugh I.D.I*. and Okwori A.I.**
*Department of Animal Nutrition and **Department of Animal Production, University of Agriculture, PMB 2373, Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria.
^Corresponding author email: tuleundoo@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
Objective: To evaluate the performance of growing pullets fed on rice offal based diets supplemented with Roxazyme G® enzyme.
Methodology and results: A seventy-day feeding trial was conducted. Eight iso-nitrogenous diets were formulated which contained rice offal at 0, 20, 40 and 60% levels without or with 150mg/kg enzyme supplementation. Two hundred and eighty-eight ten-week old Rhode Island Red pullets were divided into eight groups of thirty-six birds each and randomly assigned to the eight dietary treatments in a 2x4 factorial arrangement. Each treatment was replicated three times with twelve birds/replicate. Results showed that average feed intake significantly (P<0.05) increased as dietary inclusion of rice offal increased without and with enzyme supplementation. Body weight gain and feed conversion ratio significantly (p<0.05) decreased as the dietary rice offal increased without or with enzyme supplementation. However, the depression was significantly (p<0.05) less in the groups supplemented with enzyme. Increased dietary rice offal resulted in delay in laying time but this was reduced with enzyme supplementation. Dietary inclusion of rice offal without enzymes linearly reduced cost of feed and cost of production in terms of feed cost per unit weight gain. Although enzyme supplementation increased the cost per kilogram of formulated diet by 0.67%, it remarkably affected percent feed cost savings by 23.61 and 27.80 naira per kilogram for the 20, 40 and 60% rice offal diets.
Conclusion and application of findings: The results suggest that supplementation of diets containing rice offal at 60 % level with Roxazyme G® could improve the nutritive value of rice offal for pullet, reduce the rearing period and is also profitable as regards the feed cost per kg body weight gain, with a cost saving of 34.68%.
Key words: rice offal, enzyme supplementation, pullet performance
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