Effects of exogenous phytase and xylanase, individually or in combination, and pelleting on nutrient digestibility, available energy content of wheat and performance of growing pigs fed wheat-based diets

OBJECTIVE Two experiments were conducted to determine the effects of adding exogenous phytase and xylanase, individually or in combination, as well as pelleting on nutrient digestibility, available energy content of wheat and the performance of growing pigs fed wheat-based diets. METHODS In Experiment 1, forty-eight barrows with an initial body weight of 35.9±0.6 kg were randomly assigned to a 2×4 factorial experiment with the main effects being feed form (pellet vs meal) and enzyme supplementation (none, 10,000 U/kg phytase, 4,000 U/kg xylanase or 10,000 U/kg phytase plus 4,000 U/kg xylanase). The basal diet contained 97.8% wheat. Pigs were placed in metabolic cages for a 7-d adaptation period followed by a 5-d total collection of feces and urine. Nutrient digestibility and available energy content were determined. Experiment 2 was conducted to evaluate the effects of pelleting and enzymes on performance of wheat for growing pigs. In this experiment, 180 growing pigs (35.2±9.0 kg BW) were allocated to 1 of 6 treatments according to a 2×3 factorial treatment arrangement with the main effects being feed form (meal vs pellet) and enzyme supplementation (0, 2,500 or 5,000 U/kg xylanase). RESULTS In Experiment 1, there were no interactions between feed form and enzyme supplementation. Pelleting reduced the digestibility of acid detergent fiber (ADF) by 6.4 percentage units (p<0.01), increased the digestibility of energy by 0.6 percentage units (p<0.05), and tended to improve the digestibility of crude protein by 0.5 percentage units (p = 0.07) compared with diets in mash form. The addition of phytase improved the digestibility of phosphorus (p<0.01) and calcium (p<0.01) by 6.9 and 7.6 percentage units respectively compared with control group. Adding xylanase tended to increase the digestibility of crude protein by 1.0 percentage units (p = 0.09) and increased the digestibility of neutral detergent fiber (NDF) (p<0.01) compared with control group. Supplementation of the xylanase-phytase combination improved the digestibility of phosphorus (p<0.01) but impaired NDF digestibility (p<0.05) compared with adding xylanase alone. In Experiment 2, adding xylanase increased average daily gain (p<0.01) and linearly improved the feed:gain ratio (p<0.01) compared with control group. CONCLUSION Pelleting improved energy digestibility but decreased ADF digestibility. Adding xylanase increased crude protein digestibility and pig performance. Phytase increased the apparent total tract digestibility of phosphorus and calcium. The combination of phytase-xylanase supplementation impaired the effects of xylanase on NDF digestibility.