Control of the anti-nutritive effect of non-starch polysaccharides from barley-based combined forage in broilers

The objective of this experiment was to assess the anti-nutritive effect of non-starch polysaccharides (NSP) from barley on the bio-productive and digestive indices and also on cecum microflora in broiler chickens. Barley participation percentage in the combined forage was 0 and 40%, respectively. In order to counteract the NSP’s anti-nutritional effect, we added some variants with incorporation of β-glucanase in amount of 10 and 50 g/t combined forage, respectively. We determined the coefficients of correlation between the values of intestinal viscosity and enzyme intake, resulted from the participation of this in various quantities in the combined forage structure (10 and 50 g/t, respectively). Barley incorporation in the combined forage structure, in a proportion of 40%, with addition of β-glucanase in quantity of 50 g/t combined forage, determines the achievement of a greater body weight compared with LE 1, whose forage was not combined with barley; it also determines the reduction of specific intake with 1.16%, reduction of intestinal viscosity with up to 24.7% at the age of 3 weeks and with 16.2% at 6 weeks age. The coefficients of correlation between the intestinal viscosity and β-glucanase intake in LE 3 and LE 4 are positive (0.958, 0.981, respectively), meaning that viscosity is strongly influenced by the enzyme intake. In order to design viscosity according to enzyme intake, we used the 3 rd order polynomial equation.