Effects of protease supplementation on growth performance, organ development, gut morphology, and microbial profile of broiler chicken

ABSTRACT

The current study evaluated the effect of protease enzyme supplemented to a standard diet for 6 weeks on growth performance, organ development, gut morphology, and microbial profile of male broiler chicken. On day 42, 2 birds per pen were dissected to evaluate carcass composition, organ weights, gut morphology, and cecal microbial profile. Final body weight and average daily gain for the total grow-out period tended to increase by protease supplementation, although average daily feed intake, feed conversion ratio, and internal organs’ weight were not affected. The protease enzyme addition improved gut morphological traits in the duodenum, Jejunum and ileum. Protease addition changed the abundance of specific bacteria including Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Porphyromonadaceae, Lachnospiraceae, Bacteroidaceae, and Ruminocococcaceae. In conclusion, 50 g/ton protease supplementation tended to improve growth performance, had significant effects on gut morphology and demonstrate the potential to increase the abundance of beneficial bacteria such as Firmicutes.

KEYWORDS:

• Broiler chicken
• growth performance
• gut morphology
• microbial profile
• protease

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Deirdre Mikkelsen for helpful discussions about microbiota analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Queensland Early Career Research Awards under Scheme of New Staff Start Up Grant.