Effect of exogenous xylanase, amylase, and protease as single or combined activities on nutrient digestibility and growth performance of broilers fed corn/soy diets

Two trials (a 42-d performance and a 21-d cohort digestibility) were conducted to evaluate the performance and nutrient digestibility of broilers fed corn diets supplemented with exogenous xylanase, amylase, and protease as single or combined activities. A nutritionally adequate, positive control (PC) diet was formulated. The negative control (NC) diet was formulated to be lower in metabolizable energy (∼86 kcal/kg diet) and digestible amino acids (1 to 2%) compared to PC. The other 4 treatments were based on the NC and they were either supplemented with xylanase (X), amylase (A), protease (P), or a combination of X, A, and P (XAP; to provide 2,000 U of X, 200 U of A, and 4,000 U of P/kg diet). All diets were marginal in AvP and Ca and contained a background of phytase (1,000 FTU/kg). In each trial, male broiler (Ross 308) chicks were allocated to the 5 treatments (10 replicates of 20 birds/pen and 9 replicates of 8 birds/cage for the performance and digestibility trials, respectively). In the digestibility trial, ileal digesta was collected on d21 for the determination of nutrient utilization. Data were subjected to one-way ANOVA and means were separated by Tukey's HSD test. Only the XAP improved (P < 0.05) AMEn compared to NC. X, A or XAP improved (P < 0.05) N digestibility and apparent ileal digestible energy (AIDE). Both P and XAP improved N retention. The relative improvement in energy digestibility due to enzyme supplementation was greater at the ileal level than that measured in the excreta. The measured changes on AIDE due to supplemental enzymes were much higher than the sum of calculated contributions from starch, fat, and protein. Supplementation of all enzymes reduced (P < 0.05) ileal flow of soluble rhamnose and mannose relative to NC. In the performance trial, both X and XAP improved (P < 0.05) weight gain (WG) and only XAP improved (P < 0.05) FCR compared to NC during the starter phase (1-21d). Over the entire period (1-42d), WG and FI were not influenced (P > 0.05) by dietary treatments. Both X and XAP had lower (P < 0.05) FCR compared to NC (1.540 and 1.509 vs 1.567, respectively). However, birds fed diet supplemented with XAP had an improved (P < 0.05) FCR compared to birds fed single activities and had similar (P > 0.05) FCR compared to PC. In conclusion, these results suggest a synergistic effect between X, A and P on broiler performance and nutrient digestibility. In the current study, AIDE measurements appeared to overestimate the enzyme response. Calculation of the energy contribution by supplemental enzymes using the improvements in the digestibility of the undigested fraction of starch, fat and protein may be a more accurate measurement for the enzyme response than the absolute response in AIDE.