Xylanase supplementation compensates dietary energy reduction
Feed enzymes are increasingly common in poultry diets, including commercial xylanase products. Xylanases sourced from Bacillus subtilis hydrolyze arabinoxylan (AX) polymers, which are present in corn and soybean meal, which may not be fully hydrolyzed by poultry due to a lack of endogenous enzymes.
Insoluble AX are main components of the non-starch polysaccharide fraction of corn and soybean meal and are know as important antinutritional factors, which can entrap nutrients and impair digestibility.
Including a bacterial xylanase in corn and soybean meal-based poultry diet may positively affect nutrient and energy utilization due to increased degradation of insoluble AX while reducing mucosal stressors in the small intestine.
Additive supplementation is increasingly used to improve intestinal health and growth performance, as more attention has been given to intestinal health.
A group of international researchers recently conducted an experiment to evaluate the effects of a B. subtilis xylanase on nutrient digestibility, intestinal health, and growth performance of broiler chickens undergoing an intestinal challenge with Eimeria spp. and Clostridium perfringens. They described their approach in a recent edition of Poultry Science.
Dietary treatments included a control diet, an energy reduction diet, and the energy reduction diet supplemented with B. subtilis xylanase at 100 g/ton. The energy reduction diets were formulated with metabolizable energy reductions to 80, 82, 87, and 92 kcal/kg for pre-starter, starter, grower, and finisher, respectively. All birds in the study were dosed with a commercial coccidial vaccine at day 1 and subsequently challenged via oral gavage with C. perfringens to induce intestinal dysbiosis to evaluate the effects of bacterial xylanase on promoting intestinal health, nutrient digestibility and bird performance in suboptimal health conditions.
According to the researchers, for the overall 42-day trial, broilers on the xylanase diet had greater bodyweight gain than birds fed the energy reduction diet. Broilers on the xylanase diet had improved intestinal integrity.
Supplementing the B. subtilis xylanase improved dry matter digestibility by 8.2% and 4.8% at 21 and 42 days, respectively. Also, at 42 days, the protein digestibility tended to be 2.8% higher with xylanase supplementation compared to broilers fed the energy reduction diet.
The researchers suggested that a beneficial microbiota and a balance in the intestinal microbial development can contribute to improve intestinal health, enhancing energy utilization and, consequently, growth performance.
What does this mean for producers?
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Supplementing corn-soybean meal diets with a B. subtilis xylanase improved nutrient digestibility and energy utilization while enhancing intestinal health.
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Bacterial xylanase offers a new strategy to improve feed efficiency and intestinal health, while compensating the effects of energy reduction of diets.
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Xylanase supplementation helped compensate the energy reduction in corn-soybean meal diets fed to broiler chickens.
The full paper, “A Bacillus subtilis xylanase improves nutrient digestibility, intestinal health and growth performance of broiler chickens undergoing an intestinal challenge,” can be found in Poultry Science and online here.
DOI: 10.1016/j.psj.2025.104908
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