Effect of supplementation of acid protease in diets containing different levels of crude protein on performance of white leghorn layers

A study was conducted to evaluate the effects of feeding low crude protein (CP) diets with acid protease enzyme on production performance of White Leghorn Layers (WHL) from 51-62 weeks of age. 120 layers (BV-300) were randomly allotted to 5 treatments with 6 replicates in each treatment and 4 birds in each replicate. The control diet (CD) contained 14.09% CP and the low CP (LCP) diets were prepared having 13.04 and 12.48% CP. The enzyme acid protease was supplemented (400 g/ton of feed) to both LCP diets. Egg production (EP), egg mass (EM) and the serum cholesterol were significantly reduced (P<0.05) when the birds were fed with 13.09% CP. Whereas, EP, egg weight (EW), EM and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were significantly reduced (P<0.05) with 12.48% CP. Supplementation of acid protease to 13.09% CP showed that EP and EM were comparable to the CD but did not show any effect when compared to 13.09% CP alone. Whereas, supplementation of acid protease to the 12.48% CP showed that the FCR and EW were similar to the CD but egg weight was significantly (P<0.05) increased when compared to 12.48% CP (without enzyme). However, there were no effect on the body weights and egg quality parameters either with the reduction of CP or by supplementation of acid protease. Also, addition of enzyme to 13.09% CP was more economical than any other treatments. It could be concluded that 13.04% CP with acid protease diet improved the performance and comparable to the CD.