ABSTRACT
Palm Kernel Meal (PKM) is a waste product from the palm oil industry which has potential energy and protein content for animal feed ingredients. However, the use of PKM is limited due to its high crude fiber content and low nutrient digestibility. The β-Mannanase liquid enzyme produced from Eupenicillium javanicum BS4, a mesophyll fungus isolated from royal palm seeds (Roystone regia), has been used to increase nutrient availability and reduce the mannan content in PKM. In this experiment, we compared the effectiveness of free liquid enzyme and pollard-immobilized enzyme in the performance of the layer chicken. First, the recovery of immobilized enzyme in different ratio of enzyme and pollard was measured (1:1, 1:2, and 1:3 w/v), and we concluded that the 1:1 ratio has the highest recovery activity (75%). That recovery value showed not all enzymes added expressed the activity in vitro. Five treatments were assigned randomly to four contiguous cages in each of four rows in a randomized complete block design: (i) positive control (commercial), negative control, liquid enzyme treatment, pollard immobilized enzyme added at 20ml/kg PKM and 26.7ml/kg PKM, respectively. The result showed that pollard immobilized enzyme treatment (20ml/Kg PKM) has the lowest feed conversion ratio (4.16), liquid enzyme treatment has 4.80 FCR, and pollard-immobilized enzyme (26.7ml/Kg PKM) has the highest FCR (8.72). Feed consumption and egg quality did not differ significantly among the treatments. We concluded that the most efficient feed is the one that was added with pollard immobilized enzyme 20ml/kg PKM.
