Abstract

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of dried tomato pomace (DTP) and a multienzyme preparation supplementation (Rovabio Excel^TM) on the performance and carcass quality of broiler chickens. A 4 × 2 factorial arrangement of treatments comprising 4 dietary DTP levels (0, 8, 16 and 24%) with and without enzyme supplementation was used. Each diet was fed to 4 replicates pens of 8 broiler chicks from 1 to 42 days posthatch as a coarse mash. The addition of DTP up to 16% to broiler diets did not significantly affect feed intake (FI), body weight gain (BWG) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) during starter (1 to 21 days), growing (22 to 42 days) and entire experimental (1 to 42 days) periods. Inclusion of 24% DTP into the diet significantly decreased FI at starter and entire experimental periods. Also, inclusion of 24% DTP into the diets significantly decreased BWG and increased FCR at all periods. Birds fed the diets supplemented with Rovabio Excel^TM had significantly higher BWG during the starter and entire experimental periods. No significant effect of enzyme addition was observed on FI and FCR. The dietary treatments with or without enzyme did not significantly affect mortality. The 8% DTP-fed group had comparable carcass weight, carcass yield, yield of breast, thigh, abdominal fat, heart, liver and gizzard with those of control group. The higher levels of DTP significantly decreased carcass weight and yield, yield of breast and thigh when compared to the control group. Enzyme supplementation significantly increased carcass weight and yield of abdominal fat. No significant interactions between the DTP and enzyme were observed for performance parameters and carcass characteristics. These results demonstrate that supplementation of DTP up to 8% to broiler diets had no significant adverse effects on performance parameters and carcass characteristics. The enzyme had a significant effect on BWG, carcass weight and yield of abdominal fat.

Key words: Dried tomato pomace, enzyme, performance, carcass quality, broiler.

Abbreviation

DTP, Dried tomato pomace; FI, feed intake; BWG, body weight gain; FCR, feed conversion ratio.+