Performance of Broiler Chickens Fed on Corn- Sunflower Meal Diets with ß- Glucanase Enzyme

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of adding different levels of sunflower meal (sfm; 0, 5, 10, and 15%) with and without ß-glucanase enzyme (e) to broiler starter and finisher rations on the performance and cost of broiler production in jordan. seven hundred and twenty one-day-old chicks were randomly distributed into 8 equal treatments, each with 3 replicates (30 chicks/ replicate). treatments were: 1) basal diet (corn-soybean meal diet) zero level of sfm, 2) 5% sfm, 3) 10% sfm, 4) 15% sfm 5) basal diet+e, 6) 5% sfm+e, 7) 10% sfm+e, 8) 15% sfm+e. rations were formulated to be isocaloric and isonitrogenous. the addition of 10% sfm to the ration resulted in a significant (p<0.05) improvement in the final weight of birds at 6 weeks of age (1946 gm) compared with the control group (1736 gm) and other treatments except 5% sfm, 5% sfm+e, and 10% sfm+e. moreover, cumulative feed intake (cfi) of chicks fed 10% sfm (4322 gm) was significantly higher (p<0.05) than cfi of chicks in the control group without e (3761 gm), 15% sfm and 15% sfm+e. no significant (p>0.05) effect on feed conversion ratio (fcr) was found as a result of adding sfm with or without e. the descriptive analysis of cost differences (dacd) were found between all groups without e (0, 5, 10 and 15% sfm), but only the10% sfm group had the same dacd as the other four groups with e. these results suggest that adding e to broiler starter and finisher rations does not result in significant improvement in sfm utilization. in conclusion, addition of 10% sfm without e can be used efficiently in broiler rations without any adverse effect on broiler performance and with the minimal cost