Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the effects of fermentation efficiency, nutritional components, digestibility, and growth performance between commercial and hand-mixed diets.
Materials and Methods: In the first trial, 144 Cobb 308-day-old chicks were distributed into three groups, with six replications and eight birds per replicate cage. They were offered a commercial dry diet (CD), a moist commercial diet (CM), and a fermented commercial moist diet (CFM). In the second trial, another 144 Cobb 308-day-old chicks were grouped in threes (similarly distributed) and offered a hand-mixed moist diet (HM), a fermented hand-mixed moist diet (HFM), and a fermented hand-mixed moist diet without synthetic amino acids (HFM-SAA). Feed composition, apparent nutrient digestibility, growth indices, and economic returns were analyzed for 35-days feeding trial.
Results: The fermentation effect was non-significant on nutrient composition and energy content in the first trial, but reduced feed intake, final body weight (p < 0.001), and profit (p = 0.001). In the second trial, fermentation significantly increased crude protein (p = 0.002), dry matter and protein digestibility (p < 0.01), and body weight gain (p < 0.001), resulting in higher profit in the fermented feeding group. Removing synthetic amino acids neglects these benefits. In comparison, trial one achieved better outcomes in the non-fermented state, while trial two achieved better outcomes in the fermented group after adding synthetic amino acids.
Conclusions: Fermentation benefits are feed-type dependent, favoring a simple hand-mixed diet. Absence of synthetic amino acids also demonstrates a negative impact.

Key words: Fermentation; feeding; nutrition; additive; synthetic amino acid