ORIGINAL PAPER
Effect of changes in live body weight and feed
conversion ratio as influenced by enzyme
supplements on basic post-slaughter measurements
of broiler chickens fed cereal-based diets
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Research Institute of Animal Production,
Department of Animal Nutrition,
32-083 Balice, Poland
Publication date: 2002-10-11
J. Anim. Feed Sci. 2002;11(4):671-681
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
The present work was designed to clarify the relationship between carcass yield (CY) and abdominal
fat (AF) percentages with changes in final live body weight (LBW) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) in
broilers as caused by supplementary feed enzymes. The experimental data set was obtained from a total
of eleven growth trials carried out with chickens of currently used commercial strains. In all of the trials
the chickens were fed ad libitum with mash diets based on home-grown cereals and soyabean meal,
and containing fat additions, mainly as animal blended fat. Different commercial enzyme preparations
were added to the diets either alone or in combination. The mean responses to enzymes were +86 g for
final LBW, -0.08 g/g for FCR, +0.031% for CY and +0.024% for AF. For main (Pearson) correlation
assessments and (linear) regression analysis, the observed values obtained with birds fed enzyme
preparations were expressed relative to the data of control birds fed unsupplemented diets (= 1.00). No
correlation could be established between enzyme-caused relative changes in: LBW and CY, FCR and
CY, and FCR and AF. A highly significant positive correlation was found between relative changes in
final LBW of chickens and relative percentage of AF. For this relationship the regression equation
was: YAF = -2.882 + 3.735XLBW (R2= 0.529, P≤0.001). It was concluded that augmented abdominal fat
accumulation in broilers fed enzyme preparations can be avoided by lowering the quantity of animal
fat added to the cereal diets to meet the energy needs of the chickens.