Effect of enzyme supplementation on the performance of layers

An experiment with two trials was undertaken to study the effect of enzyme supplementation to diets of layers, which were specifically prepared to be deficient in nutrients like metabolizable energy (ME), crude protein (CP) and phosphorus (P) at various levels. In trial I, 336 layers of 51 weeks age were divided into six equal groups of 56 birds each and were reared on diets as control (A), 7% reduction in ME and 50% reduction in DCP with supplementation of enzyme Maxigest L @ 500 g/T (B), 7% reduction in ME (C), 7% reduction in ME with enzyme (D), 50% reduction in DCP (E) and 50% reduction in DCP with enzyme (F), for duration of eight weeks. In trial II, 318 layers of 62 weeks age were divided into four groups of 79 birds each and they were reared on diets as control (A), control with supplementation of enzyme Maxigest L @ 500 g/T (B), 10% reduction in ME, CP along with 50% reduction in DCP (C) and 10% reduction in ME, CP along with 50% reduction in DCP with enzyme (D) for eight weeks. The results of the trials suggested that in spite of reduction in DCP by 50% and reduction in ME by 7% (Trial I) or reduction in DCP by 50%, CP and ME by 10% (Trial II) layers did not show drop in egg production due to enzyme supplementation. Enzyme supplementation also improved energy, protein and phosphorus utilization, shell thickness, reduced cost of egg production and had no ill effect on health of birds. Hence, it is concluded that enzyme supplementation compensated for the reduction in ME and CP upto 10% and reduction in DCP level upto 50% in the diet and helped the birds for recording better performance in terms of egg production, feed consumption, egg weight, shell thickness and feed cost per egg.