Enzymes Enable You to Save a Lot in Poultry Feeds
Written by Conrad Fontanilla
Thursday, 10 February 2000
Poultry raisers, whether of broilers or layers, are in the right track in improving efficiency in feed conversion as a strategic move to improve the performance of the whole farm. It is because feed consumption constitutes at least 65% of the cost of production.
There are several ways to improve feed conversion efficiency, measured in terms of feed conversion ratio (FCR). But the trend now is the use of enzymes.
Enzymes occur in nature, in plants and in animals, although there are now synthetic or artificial enzymes. Natural enzymes are still the better ones, as proven by experience.
Enzymes are chemicals that break down food nutrients, or complex cells. In the saliva of man, for example, is found the enzyme fructase that breaks down the sugar fructose into sucrose and amylose.
Even microorganisms produce enzymes, which they use to digest food. Aspergillus, a fungus, produces cellulase to digest the cellulose, a hard material. Food, to be absorbed by animals or plants must be broken down into their simplest components. And enzymes are specific for this task.
Therefore, for the nutrients in poultry feeds to be absorbed by the digestive system of the chicken, they must be broken down into their simplest components. Protein is a complex chemical entity that is composed of amino acids. In nature there are about 27 amino acids, like lysine, phenylalamine, thiamine, riboflavin, folic acid, leucine, valine, etc. The carbohydrates components of the poultry feed must be broken down into the simplest sugar molecules like amylose and fructose.
To breakdown simply means to dissolve the cell walls of plant tissues, according to Marissa Dacay-Roldan in her doctoral dissertation "Anatomical and Biochemical Mechanism of Tissue Hardening in Heat-treated ‘Solo’ Papaya fruits', she submitted to the graduate school of the University of the Philippines Los Baños in 1997. When the cell wall is dissolved, the nutrients become available for absorption by the small intestines. You can compare this process with your experience when you put a capsule of medicine, say ampicin, inside your mouth for a long time. The enzyme in your saliva, dissolves the capsule (analogous to the cell wall) and you will feel in your tongue the granules that taste bitter, which is analogous to the nutrient.
In short, feed efficiency consists in the capability to break down food nutrients in their simplest forms and incorporate them into body tissues, in the case of hogs and poultry.
At different stages of its life cycle, chicken produces different enzymes in its gut. During its early growth stages, it lacks several enzymes because its digestive systems had not yet fully been developed. That is why at this stage, there is a need to supplement enzymes, like cellulase (for cellulose), amylase (for carbohydrates) and lipase (for fats).
Enzymes are added to commercial or pre-formulated feeds. Or incorporated into the feeds during the manufacture of customized formulated feeds.
Enzymes have revolutionized feed formulation in that one can now caluculate for the amount of amino acids (simples components of proteins) not just the crude protein content, which is the traditional method, according to Benjamin Bombay, an animal scientist (graduate of the University of the Philippines Los Baños), who is consultant to several poultry raisers and feed millers.
Enzymes are probiotics, in contrast to antibiotics. The trend now in the livestock industry is the application of probiotics as a way to ensure growth and good health condition, according to Dr. Armando Dumlao, a professor at the Don Mariano Marcos State University in Bacnotan, La Union, specialized in animal science. The main reason is that antibiotic ingested via animal and poultry meat or by-products have adverse side effects to man, like becoming immune to antibiotics.
Foreign countries initiated the use of probiotics-enzymes-and most of the enzymes in the local livestock and poultry are imported. Filipino scientist and inventors have acquired the knowledge and technology in the production of enzymes.
Single-celled organisms are good in producing enzymes, like Aspergillus (a fungus), Lactobacillus (a bacteria) and Saccharomyces (a yeast). In fact, they might be the best producers of enzymes because they produce specific enzymes. That is if you want to produce cellulase, you must raise Aspergillus. In contrast, if you use fruits, like papaya as your source of enzyme, you get different enzymes at different stages of the fruit, especially during its ripening stage. The result is that you get a mix of enzymes that may have contradicting actions-unpredictable and uncertain.
In the local market, enzyme products come in liquid or powder form. A Filipino product is sold in the market under the brand Fedgrozyme Forte. Fedgrozyme Forte contains amylase, proteinase, lipase, cellulase and live microorganisms of Aspergillus, Lactobacillus and Saccharomyces. Fedgrozyme Forte is manufactured by Novatech Agri-food Industries, owned and managed by Ronaldo A. Sumaoang, a Filipino-scientist-inventor, graduate of the university of the Philippines, Los baños, who had toured large fermetation plants in Japan and taken advanced studies in enzymology in Germany.
According to Benjie Bombay, Fedgrozyme Forte increases feed conversion efficiency and saves at least 15 percent in feed consumption.
With Fedgrozyme Forte incorporated in feeds, a layer hen that formerly consumed 110 grams of feeds per day now consumes 95 to 97 grams per bird per day only, according to Albert Alquiros, manager/owner of San Martin Poultry located in Gulang-gulang, Lucena City.
That translates to a savings of about 15 bags of feeds per day for 60,000 egglayers that have produced mostly medium and large size eggs. These 60,000 layers (Babcock) and 14,000 growers consume 8 tons of feeds per day. Their egg production efficiency has been maintained at a high level of 77% to 95%, Alquiros said during an interview on July 31, 1999. (Anyway, egg production varies with the age of layers.)
Before adopting Fedgrozyme Forte, Mr. Alquiros used to give 105 to 115 grams of feed per bird per day. Now he manufactures his own feeds, incorporated with Fedgrozyme Forte. Of course, he still supplies vitamins and minerals and maintains good cultural practices.
Fedgrozyme Forte is sold at 1, 5 and 25 kilo packs. It is applied at 1.0 to 1.5 kilos per ton of feeds.
Two layer raisers whose farms are located in Bangka-bangka Victoria, Laguna visited the San Martin Farm on July 31, 1999 with the view of adopting Alquiros’s feeding practice. The twosomes are Eric Conrado Yutoc (with 10,000 layers) and Bobot Villaluz (with 15,000 layers).
Bobot Lorico, whose layer farm is located in Luisiana, Laguna, has just recently switched to feeds incorporated with Fedgrozyme Forte. The feed consumption went down from 110 grams to 95 grams per bird per day. His savings in feeds translates to about 39,000 pesos per month for his present flock of 10,000. Egg production also increased. He is now set to raise his own egglaying stock to ensure their good health condition and performance, using feeds laced with Fedgrozyme Forte.
Lorico is familiar with commercial feed brands because he was a veterinary and poultry farm supply agent who learned the poultry raising trade. Having supplied the right products to his clients and having advised them to success, he then put up his own farm.
The performance of Fedgrozyme Forte is shown by the birds themselves, Benjie Bombay says. The method to measure feed consumption is easy enough.
Give the feeds ad libitum – that is, do not withdraw it, says Mr. Bombay. The bird itself will limit its feeding voluntarily. In early rationing, if the birds do not consume all feeds given in the trough, lessen the next rationing. You do not need to remove the leftovers before giving the new ration. If all the feeds had been consumed before the lights of the day were out, increase the ration next day. If all feeds were consumed too early in the day, you add some more for the same day, Benjie says. With trials lie these, you will arrive at a close average of day-to-day feed consumption.
Alquiros, keeps daily records of feed consumption, which Villaluz and Yutoc saw to their satisfaction. The two made arrangements with Alquiros for them to adopt his feeding system.
"Based on the results of the study, birds fed with Fedgrozyme Forte showed four percent improvement on hen-day egg production, egg weight increased by about 0.33 gram, 4.76% better FCR and 4.77% lesser feed cost per dozen egg produced over those layers of the control groups," reported Dr. Armando Dumlao of his study 1. "The Effect of Fedgrozyme on the Performance of Layers (Babcock)".
Source: Marid Agribusiness Digest, February, 2000
