Influence of dietary phytase and protease, individually or in combination, on growth performance, intestinal morphology, microbiota composition and nutrient utilisation in broiler chickens fed sesame meal-based diets

Abstract

Efficacy of phytase and protease supplements, individually or in combination, on growth performance, carcass, intestinal morphology, microbiota composition and nutrient digestibility was investigated in broilers fed diets containing sesame meal. A total of 375 day-old male broiler chickens of ROSS 308 strain were randomly allocated into five dietary treatments with five replicates per treatment and 15 broilers per each. Dietary treatments were T1: a basal diet (control), T2: sesame meal diet (150 g/kg sesame meal to replace soybean meal), T3: T2 + 500 FTU/kg phytase, T4: T2 + 0.2 g/kg protease and T5: T2 + combination of phytase and protease supplements. At the end of the study, body weight gain of the T5 broilers was greater than those of the T1 birds (p