Dietary addition of liquid Saccharopolyspora solubles concentrate positively affects pellet mill throughput and broiler performance

Dietary inclusion of liquid Saccharopolyspora solubles concentrate (SynerMax) is used in the broiler industry to reduce feed milling energy per unit of feed produced and improve feed mill pellet throughput in addition to providing nutrients vital for broiler growth. An experiment was conducted to validate this use by evaluating pellet mill performance responses in corn-and-soybean-meal-based diets containing 0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, and 4.0% SynerMax. Quadratic response equations indicated that production rate, pellet mill power consumption, and pellet durability index were optimized (100% of asymptote) when diets contained 1.6, 1.2, and 1.3% dietary SynerMax, respectively. In addition to feed mixing improvements, SynerMax contains nutrients that may improve broiler growth and carcass characteristics (i.e., 14.5% crude protein as-is basis, 8.4% crude fat as-is basis, amino acids, vitamins, and minerals). Because published reports evaluating the impact of SynerMax on broiler performance are not available, an additional experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of 0.0, 0.5, and 1.0% dietary SynerMax on male and female broiler growth and carcass responses. Treatment additions of SynerMax were forced-in (0.5 and 1.0%) least-cost formulated diets based on corn, soybean meal, and meat-and-bone meal. Test diets containing SynerMax (0.5 and 1.0%) had marginally reduced levels of corn, soybean meal, and fat as compared to the control test diet (0.0% SynerMax). All diets were formulated to contain 5% meat and bone meal. Male broilers had increased (P < 0.001) BW and decreased (P < 0.001) corrected feed conversion and percentage livability. A SynerMax-by-sex interaction occurred for feed conversion, indicating that male broilers had optimal feed conversion (P < 0.027) when fed diets containing 0.5% SynerMax in comparison to birds fed the control diet. SynerMax did not affect feed conversion in female broilers. As dietary SynerMax was increased, breast meat weight and yield increased in male broilers.