Responsiveness of high screenings and commercial cereal grains to a blend of xylanase and phytase enzyme products

Two experiments evaluated the apparent metabolisable energy (AME) values for cereal grains fed with and without a blend of xylanase and phytase enzyme products to broiler chickens. The first experiment involved 30 high screenings grains (10 wheats, 11 barleys, 3 triticales, and 6 sorghums). The second experiment involved 50 grains (20 wheats, 13 barleys, 3 triticales and 14 sorghums) donated by commercial companies throughout Australia. Each experiment included "connectivity" grains used in previous experiments that contributed to the AusScan near infrared reflectance (NIR) calibration database. The inclusion of "connectivity" grains (15 in Experiment 1 and 17 in Experiment 2) enabled data to be analysed statistically for valid comparison across many experiments conducted in the period 1998 to 2010. These grains were also fed with and without the blend of enzymes. In general, the results show that the enzyme blend improved AME values for some wheats and only one barley, and had little or no effect on other types of grain.