Indian Journal of Poultry Science

Venkatramana, P., Senthil, S. Murugan, Patki, H.S. and Chacko, Biju 2020. Effect of dietary supplementation of exogenous enzymes on growth performance and intestinal histo-morphology of broilers fed cashew apple waste based diets. Indian Journal of Poultry Science, 55(3): 205-209.This experiment was conducted for a period of 42 days to study the effect of dietary supplementation of exogenous cocktail enzymes to cashew apple waste (CAW) based broiler rations on the histology of ileum and growth performance. Two hundred and ten day-old Vencobb-400 broiler chicks were randomly divided into seven groups with three replicates of 10 chicks in each group. All the experimental diets were prepared as per BIS (2007) recommendations. Birds in G1 group were fed on corn, soybean meal control diet, whereas, birds in G2 and G3 groups fed with diets containing 5 and 10 per cent CAW without any enzyme supplementation. To this G2, commercial enzyme mix at 500 g (G4) and 750 g (G5) per ton of feed was supplemented. Similarly, G3 diet was also supplemented with enzyme mix at 500 g (G6) and 750 g (G7) per ton of feed. The villus height and thickness of tunica mucosa were found to be higher (p<0.01) in birds fed on 5% CAW with 750 g enzyme mix (group G5) diets compared to other treatment groups. The goblet cell count was observed to be lesser (p<0.01) in the G4, G5 when compared to all other groups. F eed intake did not differ among different groups at 42^nd day of birds’ age. Better body weight Gain (BWG) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) (p<0.03) were recorded in experimental birds received 10% CAW and exogenous enzymes at 750 g/ton compared to other groups. Thus, CAW could be included in corn, soybean meal based broiler rations up to 10 % level with cocktail enzyme mix at 750 g/ton.