Effects of supplemental multi-emulsifiers on broiler growth performance and nutrient digestibility

An experiment was conducted to determine whether mixed exogenous emulsifiers (sodium stearoyl lactylate, glycerol monostearate, and glycerol distearate) supplementation in tallow-incorporated reduced-energy diets could improve broiler performance as well as mitigate the physiological limitation of lower fat utilization in young birds. 256 Ross 308 one-day-old broilers (42.28 ± 0.16 g) were randomly allocated in a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement to 32 pens with eight chicks per cage for 35 days. Birds were fed one of four dietary treatments as follows: (1) positive control (PCN; energy sufficient diet); (2) negative control (NCN; energy-deficient diet, -100 ME kcal/kg); (3) PCL (PCN plus 0.05% emulsifier) and (4) NCL (NCN plus 0.05% emulsifier). Growth performance was evaluated weekly whereas digesta samples were collected on days 21 and 35 to determine the apparent ileal digestibility (AID) of dry matter, crude protein, crude fat, and energy. Emulsifiers in the NCL diet led to higher (p < 0.05) daily gains, improved daily feed intake, and better feed efficiency. Thus, better growth performance was achieved with the NCL diet relative to all the other diets. Improvements (p < 0.05) were noticed for the AID of crude fat (day 21 and 35) as well as energy, and dry matter only on day 35. Our results suggest that 0.05% emulsifier use in low-energy diets could improve the growth performance and nutrient digestibility of broilers for 35 days. There is a potential of relatively reducing feed costs by incorporating fats plus emulsifiers in reduced-energy diets without compromising on broiler performance.

Keywords: digestibility, emulsifiers, performance, tallow.

Presented at the 19th AAAP (Asian-Australasian Association of Animal Production) Animal Science Congress, Jeju, Korea, 2022.