The experiment was carried out to evaluate the effect of phytase enzyme supplementation in diets on the metabolizable energy (ME) and on the apparent ileum digestibility coefficients of the dry matter, crude protein, calcium and phosphorous, and to determine the deposition of ashes, calcium and phosphorous on the tibia of broilers. It was used 350 Ross male broilers from 16 to 25 days of age distributed in a complete randomized design with five diets and ten replicates of seven birds per each experimental unit. The diets which were corn and soybean meal based were formulated considering the availability of metabolizable energy, crude protein, lysine, calcium, and available phosphorus according to the nutritional matrix of phytase enzyme, and supplemented with 0.5% of chromium oxide. The diets were the following: positive control; negative control 1; negative control 2; negative control 1 + 250 ftu; negative control 2 + 500 ftu. The phytase enzyme supplementation at levels of 250 and 500 ftu/kg of diet improved the energetic values of the diets by 36 and 54 kcal/kg of dry matter, respectively. The use of phytase improved the digestibility coefficients of crude protein and phosphorus, whose highest values were obtained with supplementation of 500 ftu/kg of diet. The phytase supplementation improved coefficient of digestibility and phosphorous retention reducing excreted phosphorous and increasing composition of phosphorous in the tibia of the birds, mainly for the broilers fed diet supplemented with phytase (500 ftu/kg). The phytase supplementation (500 ftu/kg) improves the digestibility coefficients of crude protein and phosphorous, improves the retention of phosphorus and reduces phosphorus excretion of broilers.
calcium; digestibility; enzyme; phosphorus; tight
