Complete substitution of sunflower meal for soybean meal with or without enzyme supplementation in broiler rations

Ross meat-type chicks from 18 to 46 days of age were used in this experiment. Eight experimental diets were formulated and used. The control diet contained 20% solvent extracted soybean meal and preparation of sunflower meal (SFM) was used at levels of 10, 15, or 20% of the diet instead of soybean meal. The following four crude enzyme preparations were applied with the diets contained 15 or 20% SFM: Phylacell 0.6 g/kg; Energex(TM) 0.5 g/kg; Energex(TM) 0.5 g plus BioFeed(TM) pro 0.25 g/kg; Kemzyme(R) Dry 1 g/kg feed. Regarding to the whole period of study, no significant differences were observed among treatments in body weight, growth rate, body weight gain, feed consumption, protein consumption, feed conversion, protein efficiency, metabolizable energy intake, carcass traits, and meat composition. Generally, it can be concluded that soybean meal in broiler rations could be completely substituted with the used sunflower meal preparation without any adverse effects on broiler performance, carcass traits, and meat composition. There were no beneficial effects of enzyme supplementation with this sunflower meal preparation.