Influence of Dietary Supplementation of Graded Levels of Yeast Cell Extracted Nucleotides (YEN) at Different Age Intervals on Carcass Characteristics of Commercial Broilers

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the influence of dietary supplementation of graded levels of Yeast cell extracted nucleotide (YEN) at different age intervals on carcass characteristics of commercial broilers. In a completely randomized design, 300 day-old straight run commercial broiler chicks were assigned to ten treatments with each treatments consisting of three replicates with ten chicks in each. Basal diet (control) T1 was prepared without supplementation of yeast extracted nucleotides for day 1 to 42 days of experimental period. The birds in treatment groups T2, T3 and T4 were fed with control diet supplemented with 1, 2 and 3 per cent yeast extracted nucleotides, respectively from day 1 to 14 days and rest of the day upto 42 days control diet was fed. The birds in treatment groups T5, T6 and T7 were fed with control diet supplemented with 1, 2 and 3 per cent yeast extracted nucleotides, respectively from day 1 to 28 days and rest of the day upto 42 days control diet was fed. The birds in treatment groups T8, T9 and T10 were fed with control diet supplemented with 1, 2 and 3 per cent yeast extracted nucleotides, respectively from day 1 to 42 days. The results of feeding graded levels of YEN up to 14 days did not have any significant effect on different carcass characteristics, however at the end of 28 and 42 days results revealed a significant (P≤0.05) difference in dressing percentage, thigh yield (%) breast yield (%) and meat: bone ratio, whereas no significant (P≥0.05) difference was observed with respect to other carcass characteristics among various treatments. Based on the results it was concluded that feeding of 2 and 3 per cent YEN up to 28 and 42 days resulted in similar improvement on major carcass characteristics, indicating that feeding 2 per cent YEN up to 28 days would result in optimal results and better economy in commercial broiler production.