A note on the effects of a combination of an enzyme complex and probiotic in the diet on performance of broiler chickens

The object of this experiment was to investigate the effect of an enzyme complex and a\nprobiotic mixture, offered either singly or in combination, in the diet of broiler chickens\n(from 1 to 47 days of age) on growth and digestive tract weight and length. A total of\n480 1-day old male Ross-308 broilers were allocated to 6 treatments, with 4 replicates of\n20 birds each. The treatments were three concentrations of an enzyme complex (0, 250\nor 500 mg/kg of the diet) each with and without probiotic supplementation. Inclusion\nof the enzyme complex linearly improved body weight (BW) and food conversion ratio\n(FCR) and reduced the relative weight (g/g carcass weight) of duodenum and the\nlength of the jejunum. Probiotic inclusion only improved FCR. However, there was an\ninteraction between the linear effect of enzyme concentration and response to probiotic\ninclusion for BW, FCR and the relative weight of the duodenum. It is concluded that the\ncombination of the enzyme complex and probiotic can improve the performance more\nthan either supplement used on its own.