Poultry Feed constitutes nearly 70 – 80% of the recurring cost of Poultry farm and as such, any reduction in the cost of feed, will go a long way in reducing the cost of production of eggs and meat, thereby increasing the margin of profit of farmers.

Number of experiments have been conducted during the last 10 years at the Institute, with a view to explore the possibility of using cheaper ingredients, maintaining the production and quality of eggs and meat, and reducing the feed cost and cost of production.

Number of experiments have been conducted for the use of enzymes, probiotics, liver tonics, coccidiostats, agricultural/industrial by-products and mash vs pellets, etc.

Information about the various research studies/trials undertaken, in brief, are given below: -

I) Experiments on use of Enzymes -

Number of experiments have been conducted using different type of Enzymes in Broiler as well as layer feeds.

It was observed that use of certain enzymes die not have beneficial effect on the performance of birds. Certain enzymes did have beneficial effect, but as the cost of their incorporation in fees was high, it did not yield any economic advantage to farmers. Whereas, certain enzymes did have beneficial effect on performance of birds and also yielded economic advantage to farmers.

II) Experiments in Probiotics -

Number of experiments have been conducted using different type of Probiotics in Broiler as well as layer feeds.

Results are on similar lines as the experiments carried out on enzymes.

III) Experiments in Use of Pigments for Yolk Colour -

When the maize price is high, part of the maize is replaced by other cereals. As the quantity of maize and thereby of pigment in maize is reduced, the yolk colour in an egg becomes pale. To restore the yolk colour in low-maize diet, use and effect of pigments added in feed was investigated. The experiment was conducted in commercial layers.

Use of certain pigments gave very good yolk colour, whereas others were not useful.

IV) Experiment on Coccidiostat vs Coccidiocides -

i). Effect of coccidiostat vs coccidiocide drug in commercial broilers – The effect of commercial broilers fed with Coccidiostat vs Coccidiocide was evaluated in commercial broilers.

The overall results of the trial indicated that use of Coccidiocide drug reduced the mortality percentage in commercial broilers, compared to the group receiving coccidiostat drug. The average body weight as well as FCR was better in the birds with coccidiocide drug, compared to the ones, which received coccidiostat drug.

V)  Agricultural/industrial by-products -

Use of different types of Agricultural/Industrial by-products were used to replace protein in feed. Number of products like Hydrolyzed Feather Meal (HFM), Dried Penicillin Mycelium (DPM), Rape seed extraction etc. were used at different percentages.

The results indicated that Whole Fish may be replaced upto 50% by Hydrolysed Feather Meal. However, higher replacement was not desirable.

Dried Penicillin Mycelia was not a very suitable replacement of existing
conventional protein source.

In case of Rape Seed extraction, the overall observations indicated that we can
replace the existing protein source by rapeseed upto 3%. Higher levels of inclusion
affected body weight and FCR, as it contains number of anti-nutritional factors.

VI) Experiments on Liver tonic on performance of commercial broilers –

Experiments were conducted using different types of Liver tonics available in the market.

The results indicated that use of certain Liver tonics in feed/water was beneficial, whereas, in case of some Liver tonics, there was no significant benefit to farmers.

VII) Effect of Herbal Antistress Diet on performance of commercial broilers –

Performance of commercial broilers was evaluated with the use of Herbal Antistress product.

The overall results of the trial indicated that inclusion of Antistress liquid in drinking water as well as premix in feed did not produce any economically beneficial effect on the performance of commercial broilers, compared to the control group.

VIII) Effect of a proprietary product for partial replacement of choline chloride in commercial broiler.

Half replacement of choline chloride with 750 gms of Preparation showed improvement in weight gain and FCR.

IX) Experiment on use of Phytase enzyme –

The results indicated that compared to chicks in Group 2 (Negative Control) inclusion of enzyme improved the availability of phytate phosphorus from ingredients, resulting in lesser incidences of lameness.

In another experiment, the results indicated that addition of enzyme at the rat of 600 FTU per kg of feed shows improvement in performance of broilers.

X) Effect of use of DCP from different sources on performance of commercial broilers –

Results indicated that DCP derived from rock phosphate showed comparable results vis-à-vis the DCP derived from bone and can be considered to use after checking the quality when the price of DCP prepared from bone is higher.