Effect of Enzyme Supplementation and Diets Containing Date Pits on Growth and Feed Utilization of Broiler Chicks

Trials were conducted to investigate the influence of enzyme supplementation on the performance of broiler chickens that were fed diets containing varying levels of date pits. A 3 x 2 factorial design arrangement of treatments was used consisting of three diet types (control, 10% uncooked date pits or 10% cooked date pits) and two enzyme levels (0 or 0.1%). The six diets were fed to three groups of commercial Hubbard broiler chicks (9 chicks per group) for four weeks. Body weight gains of broiler chicks receiving diets containing 10% uncooked date pits were significantly (P<0.05) increased compared to birds fed the control. The addition of enzyme to diets did not significantly affect broiler performance parameters. In another experiment, three groups of nine birds each were randomly assigned to each of eight dietary treatments. A 4 x 2 factorial design arrangement of treatments was used (during the starter and finishing period) consisting of four levels of uncooked date pits (0, 10, 15, and 20%) and two enzyme levels (0 or 0.1%). The results showed that dietary date pits did not affect body weight gain, feed intake or feed conversion ratio during the starter and finishing periods. Adding 0.1% enzyme to the starter diets significantly (p<0.05) increased body weight gain, but did not affect feed intake and feed conversion ratio. These experiments showed that adding date pits with or without enzyme to the broiler diets had no effect on broiler performance.