Investigation on the Effect of Using Heat-Processed Wheat Grains in the Diet on Broiler Chickens Performance

The effect of heat processing of wheat grains and enzyme supplementation on its apparent metabolizable energy (AME) and digestibility of protein and dry matter as well as the effect of their use in the diet on the growth performance, jejunum morphology and microbial population of ileum were investigated. For this purpose, 480 broiler chickens in a 4×2 factorial experiment with three levels of heat processing of wheat at 55, 70 and 85 °C for 2.5 minutes (with one treatment without thermal processing) and Rovabio enzyme (0 and 500 g/ton of diet) was used in a completely randomized design with eight treatments, six replicates of 10 birds each at the age of 25-42 days. Heat processing of wheat at55 and 85 °C increased its AME compared to unprocessed treatment; So that the AME of processed wheat at 85 °C was 2.49% higher than unprocessed wheat (P<0.05). Enzyme supplementation significantly increased the AME of wheat (P < 0.05). Wheat processing at all three temperatures reduced the height of jejunum villi compared to the unprocessed group (P < 0.01). Also, processing of wheat at 70 and 85 °Cincreased the population of lactobacilli compared to treatment without processing (P = 0.05). The use of enzyme in the diet reduced the feed intake of the birds and the height of jejunal villi (P<0.05). Overall,, enzyme supplementation and heat processing of wheat improve its AME but have no remarkable effect on the growth performance of broiler chickens.