Metabolism and Nutrition: Enzymes

The study was conducted to investigate the effects of a multi-enzyme complex (Rovabio Excel) containing carbohydrolase activities on the performance of broiler chickens. Test diets were formulated to include 12% corn distillers dried grain with solubles (DDGS). In total, 1200 Cobb 500 broiler males were randomly assigned to 8 replicate pens of 50 birds per treatment and grown to 45 d of age using one of 3 different dietary regimens. Birds in Treatment 1 received industry standard broiler feeds that served as the positive control (PC) program. Treatment 2 diets were adjusted to reduce Metabolizable Energy (ME) by 132 kcal/kg and were designated as the negative control (NC) group. Feeds in Treatment 3 were the same as NC but with the addition of a NSP enzyme, Rovabio (ROV). A 5 feed program was used to provide: starter (1–13d), grow 1 (13–21d), grow 2 (21–32 d), finisher (32–39d) and withdrawal (39–45d), respectively. Birds were weighed at 0, 21, 35 and 45d; feed conversion ration (FCR), feed intake and mortality were also determined at each weigh day. Calorie reduction in the NC treatment significantly reduced weight gain compared with the PC treatment at 45d (2.45 vs. 2.51 kg). FCR in the NC birds was higher than the PC (1.78 vs. 1.75). Adding the NSP enzyme (Rovabio) to the NC feeds restored both weight gain and feed conversion (2.54 kg and 1.75, respectively). No differences in mortality were observed.