Effect of partially replacing soybean meal with sunflower meal with supplementation of multienzymes on growth performance, carcass characteristics, meat quality, ileal digestibility, digestive enzyme activity and caecal microbiota in broilers

Muhammad Umar Yaqoob; Muhammad Yousaf; Safdar Imran; Safdar Hassan; Waqar Iqbal; Muhammad Umer Zahid; Naveed Ahmad; Minqi Wang

doi:10.5713/ab.21.0553

Effect of partially replacing soybean meal with sunflower meal with supplementation of multienzymes on growth performance, carcass characteristics, meat quality, ileal digestibility, digestive enzyme activity and caecal microbiota in broilers

Anim Biosci. 2022 Oct;35(10):1575-1584. doi: 10.5713/ab.21.0553. Epub 2022 Mar 3.

Authors

Muhammad Umar Yaqoob¹, Muhammad Yousaf², Safdar Imran², Safdar Hassan², Waqar Iqbal², Muhammad Umer Zahid³, Naveed Ahmad², Minqi Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Animal Science, Zhejiang University, Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition and Feed Science (Eastern China), Ministry of Agriculture, Hangzhou 310058, China.
² Institute of Animal and Dairy Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan.
³ Department of Animal Nutrition, University of Veterinary and Animal Science, Lahore 54000, Pakistans.

Abstract

Objective: An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of partially replacing soybean meal (SBM) with sunflower meal (SFM) with added exogenous multienzymes (MEs) on various biological parameters in broilers.

Methods: One week-old, 400 broiler chicks were randomly divided into four treatments (control, 3SFM, 6SFM, and 9SFM) with 5 replicates/treatment (20 chicks/replicate). Control diet was without SFM and MEs, while diets of 3SFM, 6SFM, and 9SFM treatments were prepared by replacing SBM with SFM at levels of 3%, 6%, and 9%, respectively, and were supplemented with MEs (100 mg/kg). Feeding trial was divided into grower (8 to 21 day) and finisher phases (22 to 35 day). External marker method was used to measure the nutrient digestibility. At the end of trial, twenty birds (one birds per replicate) with similar body weight were slaughtered for samples collection.

Results: No significant effect of dietary treatments was found on all parameters of growth performance and carcass characteristics, except relative weight of bursa. Weight (25.0 g) and length (15.80 cm) of duodenum were significantly (p<0.05) higher in 3SFM than control. Lowest (p<0.05) villus height/crypt depth ratio was found in 3SFM and 9SFM than control. Most of meat quality parameters remained unaffected, however, highest pH of breast meat (6.16) and thigh meat (6.44) were observed in 9SFM and 3SFM, respectively. Lowest (p<0.05) cook loss of thigh meat was found in 6SFM (31.76%). Ileal digestibility of crude protein was significantly (p<0.05) higher in 3SFM (72.35%) than control (69.46%). In addition, amylase (16.87 U/mg) and protease (85.18 U/mg) activities were significantly (p<0.05) higher in 3SFM than control. However, cecal microbial count remained unaffected.

Conclusion: Partial replacement (up to 9%) of SBM with SFM, with added MEs can help to improve the nutrient digestibility, intestinal morphology, and digestive enzyme activities without affecting cecal microbial count and growth performance in broilers.

Keywords: Broiler; Cecal Microflora; Intestinal Morphology; Multi-enzymes; Nutrient Digestibility; Sunflower.