Dietary Inclusion of Soybean Hulls as a Source of Insoluble Fiber on the Performance and Gut Health of Broilers

A Six-week experiment aimed to study the effect of dietary soybean hulls as a source of insoluble fiber on the growth and gut health of broiler chickens. A total of 240 day-old straight-run Cobb-430Y commercial broilers were randomly assigned to four groups (A-D), with 60 chicks per group and three replicates of 20 chicks each. The control group ‘A’ was fed with a standard basal diet, while groups ‘B’, ‘C’, and ‘D’ were fed with basal diets containing 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5% soybean hulls, respectively. Performance parameters were recorded weekly and presented over the six weeks. The gizzard and proventriculus organ indices, gizzard digesta weight, gizzard pH, histomorphology of the duodenum and jejunum, and cecal digesta microbial counts were assessed on the 35th day of age. Results indicated that soybean hulls can be safely incorporated at 0.5–1.5% into broiler diets as a natural insoluble fiber source without affecting final body weight, overall weight gain, cumulative feed intake, or overall feed conversion ratio. The 1.5% inclusion of soybean hulls significantly (P < .05) improved the gizzard index and gizzard digesta weight, reduced gizzard pH, and did not affect the proventriculus index. The 1.5% soybean hull significantly (P < .05) increased duodenal and jejunal villus height and villus height to crypt depth ratio, decreased duodenal crypt depth, and enhanced cecal Lactobacillus and total viable counts with a reduction in cecal E. coli count. Research concludes that including 1.5% soybean hulls in the broiler diet improves gizzard condition, gut morphology, and cecal microbial balance, with higher beneficial bacteria, without adversely affecting growth performance.