ABSTRACT:

An experiment was conducted to assess the influence of stone grit and enzyme supplementation in brewers’ spent grains based- diets on growth performance of chicks and pullets. Three hundred and sixty (360) two weeks old chicks were used for the experiment. They were divided into two groups (A and B) of 180 birds each. Each group was further divided into four treatments with 45 birds and each treatment was replicated three times with 15 birds. Grit was fed to all birds using a 4×2 factorial in a Completely Randomized Design at levels 0 g, 2 g, 4 g and 6 g per bird per month. Thus for each group, treatment 1 (control) had 0 g grit, treatment 2 had 2 g grit, treatment 3 had 4 g grit while treatment 4 had 6 g grit. Immediately after feeding the grit to the birds, birds in group A were fed the enzyme supplemented diet while birds in group B were fed the non – enzyme supplemented diet. The chick phase lasted for 42 days. At the end of the chick phase, a similar study was conducted on two months old pullets using three hundred and thirty-six birds which were divided into groups (A and B) of 168 birds. Each group was divided into four treatments of forty-two birds and each treatment was replicated three times with 14 birds. Grit was administered at levels 0 g, 2 g, 4 g, and 6 g per bird per month before feeding the enzyme supplemented feed to birds in group A and non- enzyme supplemented feed to birds in group B. The grower phase lasted for 84 days. In both phases, feed and water were provided ad libitum for all treatment groups accompanied by prophylactic medications and vaccination. The birds were weighed at the beginning of the feeding trial and weekly thereafter. Data collected in both phases were subjected to analysis of variance(ANOVA) and means of the two factors separated using Standard Error of Means while the interaction effect was evaluated at 5 % level of probability. It was concluded that grit feeding and enzyme supplementation in 10 % and 15 % brewers spent grains based –diet of chicks and pullets improved body weight changes, feed intake and feed conversion ratio of birds. It is recommended that higher levels of grit and BSG (with enzyme supplementation) should be studied in both pre growth developmental phases of layer chicken to leverage the potential of BSG as a feed ingredient.