Using enzyme supplemented, reduced protein diets to decrease nitrogen and phosphorus excretion of White Leghorn hens

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of supplementation of commercial phytase and beta -glucanase to wheat-soybean meal based layer diets. Control (17% CP) and reduced protein (13.5% CP) diets were compared with and without phytase and/or beta -glucanase. Reducing dietary crude protein levels reduced the amount of N excreted by laying hens with no adverse affect an egg production or overall feed conversion ratio. There was, however, a slight reduction in average egg weight. When phytase was added to the control protein diets it was possible to reduce the level of dicalcium phosphate in the diet without a loss in performance and daily P output was reduced significantly. When phytase was added to the reduced protein diets, however, there was a dramatic loss in performance in the last four weeks of the study. Supplementation of beta -glucanase to wheat based layer diet did not appear to have beneficial affects in terms of laying performance and reducing nitrogen or phosphorus excretion. Combination of phytase and beta -glucanase had no positive effects on laying performance or reduction of DM, N and P.