ABSTRACT

One hundred and twenty day-old broilers were used to determine the effect of supplementation of starter broiler diets with multienzyrner and or citric acid (organic acid) on the performance and feed cost of broilers. There were four experimental diets (T1, T2, T3and T4as Control, Citric acid, Multi-enzyme and Multi-enzyme -F Citric acid, respectively). Each treatment replicated three times. There were 30 birds per treatment and 10 birds per replicate. The experimental design was completely randomized design (CRD). Parameters measured were live weight, live weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio, protein intake, and protein efficiency ratio and feed cost. Results showed that there no significant (P>0.05) differences among the birds fed the various treatment diets in all performance indices. The daily live weight gains of the broilers in the various treatments were: T1(17.96g), T2(18.13g), T3(18.76g) and diet T4(18.36g). The diet supplemented with multi-enzyme + citric acid significantly (P<0.05) increased daily and total feed cost more than only the control diet. The daily feed intake was 1659.93, 1690.92, 1676.55 and 1704.92 for diet T1, T2, T3, and T4, respectively. There were no significant (P>0.05) differences among the diets in cost per kg live weight gain of the starter broilers, which was N163.12, N 167.01, N 168.11 and N13 1 .80 for T1 , T2, T3, and T4birds, respectively. It was concluded that considering the growth arid feed intake pattern of the birds, starter broiler diets could be supplemented with multi-enzyme alone.