Effect of Xylanase Enzyme in Diets on Performance of Kadaknath Birds

Kadaknath is well known for having black flesh, aphrodisiac properties, adaptability to hot climate and resistant to certain diseases. Although this breed has many unique characteristics, it has been neglected because of its poor production potential. In recent trends, the higher use of single activity enzymes like xylanase in commercial poultry feed for improving their performance can also improve performance in Kadaknath breed. Efforts for attaining higher body weight in short duration is still a subject of research for this breed. An experiment of ninety days was conducted with total one hundred Kadaknath chicks which were randomly divided into two equal groups with five replicates and each replicate consisted of 10 chicks. Experimental control diet (T₀) is based on BIS (2007) for broilers and treatment diet T₁ was supplemented with 0.1 kg/ton xylanase enzyme with reducing dietary ME and CP. The cost of experimental diets was worked out after considering the cost of ingredients and cost of enzyme supplementation. The average body weight, feed consumption, FCR and EI were not significantly (P>0.05) different in both treatments. Dry matter and crude fibre digestibility were observed significantly (P>0.05) higher in T₁. There was no effect of treatment on carcass traits. The profit per bird was recorded higher in xylanase enzyme supplemented group. In the above study, it was concluded that the growth performance was improved in xylanase enzyme supplemented group in comparison to control group. Supplementation of xylanase enzyme was more profitable in rearing of Kadaknath birds.