Carcass Characteristics and Gut Histomorphology of Marshall Broilers Fed Maxigrain Supplemented Diets

Abstract

One hundred and forty four day-old Marshall Chicks were randomly assigned to six dietary  treatments to assess the influence of a cocktail enzyme (maxigrain) on the carcass characteristics,  visceral organ weights and gut morphology of Marshall Broilers. Completely randomised design was  used for the study consisting six diets. Diet 1 was the control diet without enzyme, Diet 2; control diet  with 0.1% Maxigrain inclusion, Diet 3; 5% energy reduction without enzyme, Diet 4; 5% energy  reduction with 0.1% Maxigrain, Diet 5; 5% protein reduction without enzyme and Diet 6; 5% protein  reduction with 0.1% Maxigrain. Diets were replicated four times with each replicate having 6 birds.  Completely Radomised Design was used while the level of significance employed was p?0.05 Results  indicates that carcass characteristics observed show that only drumsticks were significantly influenced by  enzyme supplementation (p<0.05). Gizzard, (3.80g) spleen (0.20g) and abdominal fat (1.60g)were also  significantly affected by Maxigrain supplementation. Values obtained for gut morphological assessment  of the ileum and jejunum showed significant improvements (P<0.05) in the crypt depth, 130.30µm,  136.26µm villus height 1111.80µm, 1426.90µm and villus to crypt ratio 12.82, 13.35 respectively, as a  result of Maxigrain supplementation.