Effect of enzyme supplementation on production of brown egg type layers

An experiment was conducted on 120 laying hens (CARI-red) from 48 to 60 weeks of age to -evaluate the effect of non-starch polysaccharide degrading enzymes at two energy levels on egg production. Six dietary treatments viz. two levels of energy (2800 and 2600 kcal ME/kg) each with three levels of enzyme (0, 50 and 100 g/100kg) in a 2 x 3 factorial design were tested. Feed intake, hen-day production, egg weight, feed conversion ratio and egg quality parameters did not differ significantly due to either dietary energy levels or enzyme supplementation. However, a non-significant decrease in egg production in low energy dietary group was observed. The study indicated that enzyme supplementation in diets, with low or high energy levels, based on conventional maize-soybean meal-rice bran diet did not prove beneficial to improve egg production performance of CARI-red hens.