A total of 1440 male broiler chickens from 8 to 21 days old was assigned to two experiments to evaluate the physical form of diet, use of enzymes and nutritional levels of corn-soybean meal based diets. A completely randomized design as a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial scheme, two physical forms of diet (meal or crushed), with or without enzimatic complex (amylase, cellulase and protease) and two nutritional levels (95 or 100% of the recommendations), was used. In the experiment 1, 1200 birds were assigned to the eight treatments with five replicates of 30 chickens each, to evaluate the feed intake (FI), weight gain (WG) and feed conversion (FC). The experiment 2 was carried out simultaneously with the metabolism assay, when 240 birds were allotted to eight experimental treatments with six replicates of five birds each. The total excreta collection started at 18 days of age, once a day for three consecutive days, to determine the metabolizable energy (AMEn) and the metabolizability coefficients of dry matter (MCDM), crude protein (MCCP) and ether extract of the experimental diets. The dietary physical form and nutritional level affected feed intake, but not weight gain. Dietary nutritional level × physical form interaction on AMEn and metabolizability of the dry matter and crude protein was also observed. The physical form improves energy and MCDM while the enzymes influence the metabolizability of dry matter and crude protein. Except for MCCP, the other characteristics are influenced by the dietary nutritional level.
enzymatic complex; metabolism; pelleting; performance
