Performance and digestive tract development of young broiler chickens fed mash basal diet supplemented with rice hulls or wheat pollard at different levels

An experiment was conducted to determine the effect of different insoluble non-starch polysaccharides (nsp) sources supplementation at levels 0,20,40,60 g/kg on performance and digestive tract development of young broilers (doc-21 d). results showed that there were no interactions between insoluble nsp sources and levels at any variable measured. only levels of insoluble nsp had significant effect. young broilers fed mash basal diet supplemented with 6% insoluble nsp decreased body weight gain (p<0.05) and impaired gain-to-feed ratio (p<0.01). diets did not have a significant effect on feed intake (fi),in addition to the relative weight of gizzard,jejunum-ileum,caeca,and pancreas. levels of nsp affected the weight of gastrointestinal digesta with jejunal-ileal digesta was found to be the highest (p<0.01) in 6% insoluble nsp supplementation. dry matter of jejunal-ileal digesta and excreta moisture also did not significantly affected by diets (p≥0.05). the present study demonstrated that the insoluble nsp can be supplemented to young broilers diet up to 4%. it is likely that increased performance of young broilers supplemented with insoluble nsp up to 4% was due to increase fi and a better gut environment. the supplementation of insoluble nsp did not produce strong impact considering that the diets were given in mash form. © 2013 diponegoro university. all rights reserved.