The effects of an enzyme preparation on the performance and carcass characteristics of broilers fed diets based on maize, wheat, hulled barley (Bedford) or micronized dehulled barley (MDB) {Bedford) diets were evaluated. A commercial enzyme containing (3-glucanase and xylanase was used. One thousand and nine hundred-twenty one-day-old broiler were used for this study. The broilers fed the MDB diets had a lower average daily gain (ADG) (PO.05) and lower average daily feed intake (ADFI) (PO.05) than the broilers fed the other diets. There was a significant period x grain interaction (PO.05) for ADG with the broilers on the barley diets performing better in the grower phase. The broilers received enzymes showed an enzyme x period interaction with the feed conversion rate (FCR) of those birds in the starter phase doing better (PO.05) than in the grower phase compared to those fed the unsupplemented diets. The birds fed MDB diets had higher digesta viscosity than birds fed unprocessed barley, maize or wheat diets (PO.01). Feed enzyme addition to the MDB diet caused a decrease (PO.01) in the digesta viscosity by 49% and an improvement (PO.05) feed conversion ratio (FCR) both for the starter and the grower phase.

Two swine starter/grower/®nisher trials utilising 216 24-day-old pigs and one 40-day broiler growth trial utilising 1920 1-day-old chicks were conducted to determine the in¯uence of dietary micronised dehulled barley (MDB) as a replacement for hulled barley (HB), wheat (W) and maize (M) on live performance, carcass and meat measurements, organ weights (swine), plasma urea nitrogen (PUN) level (swine) and intestinal digesta viscosity (broilers). Dehulling and micronising the barley reduced crude protein by 20%, neutral detergent ®bre by 17% and amino acids by varying amounts. Replacing M or W with MDB in swine diets had no effect (P > 0.05) on any measured parameter, with the exception of decreased PUN (P = 0.03) when MDB replaced 100% of W. Broilers fed W, M or HB generally had similar live performance, carcass traits and digesta viscosity, with the exception of reduced (P < 0.05) average daily gain and average daily feed intake for HB during the ®rst 20 days of the trial. However, broilers fed MDB had slightly reduced (P = 0.05) live performance during each phase of the trial and greatly increased (P = 0.01) digesta viscosity. Addition of a commercial enzyme product to the diets reversed the reduced performance and increased the digesta viscosity of the MDB diet, but generally had no in¯uence in the W, M and HB diets. These results suggest that MDB can be utilised in swine diets without affecting performance, but that reduced performance may result from its use in broiler diets.

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