Impact of maize bran in broiler diet

An experiment was conducted to study the inclusion of maize bran with and without enzyme on production performance for a period of six weeks with two hundred and eighty commercial, straight run day-old Vencobb broiler chicks. These chicks were randomly grouped into seven treatments with four replicates of ten chicks each. Maize bran was included at the rate of 0, 2.5, 5.0 and 7.0 per cent with or without enzyme in the treatment groups. All treatment groups fed maize bran with and without enzyme had significantly (P<0.05) higher mean body weight compared to control group at 6 weeks of age. Inclusion of maize bran at 2.5 and 5.0 per cent with enzyme supplementation (T3 and T5) and maize bran at 7.5 per cent without enzyme supplementation showed significantly (P<0.05) higher body weight gain than control at six weeks of age. No significant difference was observed in overall feed consumption and feed conversion ratio at 6 weeks of age. The carcass characteristics viz. pre-slaughter live weight and eviscerated carcass weight did not differ significantly between the treatment groups. Significant (P<0.01) difference among treatment groups was observed in ready-to-cook carcass percentage, gizzard weight (P<0.01) and heart weight (P<0.05) during slaughter studies. The overall return over feed cost was significantly (P<0.05) higher in 7.5 per cent maize bran fed groups when compared to control group. Hence, it is concluded that maize bran up to 7.5 per cent without enzyme could be included in broiler diet for producing significantly higher body weight and ready-to-cook carcass weight with better return over feed cost.