Abstract
An experiment was conducted with day-old 300 commercial male broiler chicks (Arbor Acres$^{(R)}$) to evaluate the efficacy of crude phytase preparerations produced from a culture of Aspergillus ficcum. The experiment consisted of five dietary treatments; T1, com-soy control diet with 0.45% non-phytate phosphorus (NPP) for starter period and 0.35% NPP for grower period; T2, control - 0.1% NPP; T3, control 0.2% NPP; T4, T3+600 U of crude phytase (broth+cell); and T5, T3+600 U of crude phytase (broth). The body weight gain, feed intake, and feed/gain of chickens fed T1 diet was highest (p<0.01) among treatments. BW gain and feed intake of T4 and T5 were greater than those of T3 but were less than those of T1 and T2. T3 was highest in mortality among treatments. Decreasing the NPP level lowered availability of DM, crude ash, ether extract, crude fiber, Zn, and Fe but supplementation of crude phytase preparations improved the availability of these nutrients as well as those of Ca, P and Cu. Excretion of P and Cu significantly decreased as the NPP level in the diet decreased. Further reduction of P and Cu excretion and reduction of Ca, Mg and Fe excretion were achieved by supplementation of crude phytase preparations. The serum concentrations of Ca, P, Mg, Zn, Fe, and Cu were significantly increased by crude phytase supplementation. The weight and length of tibia, and contents of crude ash, Ca, P, Mg, and Zn were adversely affected by lowering NPP level but partially recovered by supplementation of crude phytase preparations. In conclusion, lowering NPP level in the broiler diet significantly depressed the performance. Supplementation of crude phytase preparations produced from Aspergillus ficuum could partially recover the depression.