Effect of partial replacement of soybean meal with maize gluten meal with or without supplementation of protease enzyme on performance of broilers

In a 6-week trial, 225 day-old broiler chicks were divided into five groups viz. T0, T1, T2, T3, and T4, each containing 45 birds, with 15 birds per replicate to assess the effects of replacing standard broiler diet protein with maize gluten meal (MGM), with or without protease enzyme supplementation. Birds from control group (T0) were fed with standard broiler diet as per BIS (2007). T1 and T2 received 10% protein replacement with MGM, while T3 and T4 received 20%. T2 and T4 were supplemented with protease at 200 mg/kg and 300 mg/kg, respectively. Birds in T2 and T4 showed significantly (p<0.05) higher final body weight, weight gain, feed intake, and better feed conversion ratio. Digestibility of dry matter and crude protein improved in protease-supplemented groups. Economically, T2 was most efficient, yielding 2.65% more profit per kg live weight than the control. Thus, it can be concluded that, incorporation of MGM to replace 10% protein from broiler diet with supplementation of protease enzyme at 200 mg/kg diet has improved the broiler performance at economic rate.