Effect of emulsifier on performance of broiler chicken fed with low energy diet

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of a compound emulsifier in the diet containing low metabolizable energy (ME) on the growth performance broiler chickens. One hundred and forty-four day-old straight-run commercial Vencobb 400 broiler strain chicks belonging to single hatch were weighed and randomly allotted into four dietary treatment group viz., A, B, C and D with three replicates of twelve chicks in each. The birds in control group (A) fed commercial basal diet without addition of emulsifier. The birds in group B fed with basal diet with addition of emulsifier @ 150g/ton of feed. The birds in group C and D were fed with basal diet having 50 and 100 Kcal less ME/kg of feed, respectively with addition of emulsifier @ 150g/ton of feed. The broiler birds fed on a low ME diets with addition of emulsifier resulted in performance comparable to broiler birds fed on normal ME with or without emulsifier. However, the effect of emulsifier in 50 Kcal less ME/kg of diet found to be better than 100 Kcal less ME/Kg diet in terms of overall feed conversion ratio (1.433). The addition of emulsifier with reduction in the energy level found to be economical for broiler production.