EFFECT OF XYLO-OLIGOSACCHARIDE AND XYLANASE SUPPLEMENTATION ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE, CARCASS CHARACTERISTICS, NUTRIENT DIGESTIBILITY, AND INTESTINAL HISTOLOGY OF BROILERS

The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of xylo-oligosaccharide and xylanase supplementation on growth performance, carcass characteristics, nutrient digestibility, and intestinal histology of broilers. Six hundred day-old chicks (ROSS-308) were divided into four experimental groups (i.e. T1, T2, T3, and T4). Each experimental unit had six replicates of 25 chicks/replicate. Following treatments were offered: T1= positive control (PC, commercial diet); T2=negative control (NC, basal diet); T3= NC+Signis®; T4= NC+XOS+Xylanase. The experiment was conducted from 1 to 35 days of broiler age and during this trial data regarding growth performance (feed intake, weight gain) was recorded and the feed conversion ratio was calculated. At the end of the experiment, 2 birds from every replicate were randomly selected and slaughtered to get data on carcass characteristics and giblet's weight. Intestinal tissues (duodenum, jejunum, and ileum) were also collected for histological analysis. Digestibility data was collected toward the end of the experiment to estimate nutrient digestibility. The data so generated were analyzed using the General Linear Model procedure of SPSS, 18.0, and the mean was compared using Tukey’s test. Results showed that duringthe starter phase, the effect of the treatments was non-significant for mortality and feed conversion ratio whereas a significant effect was observed for body weight gain and feed intake. Treatment C had significantly higher feed intake whereas for body weight treatments C and D had significantly higher body weight than positive and negative control groups. During the grower phase, the effect of the treatment was significant for mortality where treatments C had significantly higher mortality comparedwith all other treatments. The effect of the treatments was significant on body weight gain during the grower phase where treatment D had a significantly higher body weight compared with treatment The effect of the treatments was non-significant on the feed intake and feed conversion ratio. During the finisher phase, the effect of the treatments was significant on mortality where treatment D had the highest mortality followed by treatment A. Treatments C B and C showed no mortality during thefinisher phase of the study. The effect of the treatments was significant on FCR during the finisher phase. Treatments B and C had significantly poor FCR compared with treatment A while treatment D had non-significant differences with all other treatments. The effect of the treatments was nonsignificant for body weight and feed intake during the finisher phase. For carcass characteristics and intestinal histology, none of the treatments showed any significant difference. Keeping in view the dataon growth performance we concluded that the supplementation of these enzyme energy contents of the feed can be decreased without affecting the performance of the broilers.