Protease Supplementation of Poultry Diets

Partial characterization of two alkaline protease preparations and two feeding trials were conducted to determine the effect of dietary protease supplementation on the performance of broilers and layers. In broiler study, 320 day-old broiler chicks were randomly assigned to four treatments with eight replications of 10 birds each. In layer study, 120 individually caged 20-week old pullets were randomly distributed to four treatments following a completely randomized design. The dietary treatments for broilers and layers were essentially the same. The broiler study lasted for 42 days while the layer study lasted for 12 weeks. Results indicate that 10% reduction in crude protein and amino acid contents of the diet adversely affected the performance of broilers but not of the layers. Supplementation of the RCP/aas diets with protease A or B did not compensate for the reduction in nutrient contents of the broiler diets, which consequently decreased the profitability of broiler production. Supplementation of the RCP/aas diets with protease A or B slightly increased the profitability of table egg production.