Corn/Soy Diets Presented at World Poultry Congress 2008

Dr Ceinwen Gilbert, Technical Services Manager, Danisco Animal Nutrition, presented a poster comparing the bioefficacy of two coated phytases for broilers fed corn/soybean meal based diets. 21 day broiler performance was compared between broilers fed a positive control diet, a negative control diet (reduced in total phosphorus by 2.3g/kg and calcium by 1g/kg), negative control diets supplemented with 500, 1000 or 2000 FTU/kg coated bacterial E. Coli phytase and negative control diets supplemented with 500, 1000 or 2000 FTU/kg coated fungal P. Lycii phytase. Diets were pelleted at 90°C. The study concluded that the bacterial E. Coli phytase was more heat stable – E. Coli phytase recovery from the pelleted feed was on average 27% greater than P. Lycii phytase. Broilers fed bacterial E. Coli phytase had significantly higher bodyweight gain and numerically higher tibia ash than broilers fed the fungal P. Lycii phytase. The superior bioefficacy of the bacterial E. Coli phytase was attributed to both the higher heat stability and the ability of the phytase to better release phytate bound phosphorus in the feed.

As feed costs continue to escalate, by-products from the food and fuel ethanol industries may provide alternative more cost- effective ingredient options for the nutritionist. The use of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) in animal feed has increased with the growth of the bioethanol industry. Whilst DDGS is potentially a cost effective and valuable feed ingredient, there are certain anti-nutritional factors which limit its use in poultry feed. Soren Dalsgaard, a senior scientist with Danisco, presented a poster which examined how enzyme technology can be used to reduce certain anti-nutritional factors in DDGS. He reported that wheat DDGS increases gut viscosity in poultry, which reduces the nutrient digestibility and bird performance. Adding a highly effective xylanase reduced the viscosity and potentially increased the feeding value of wheat DDGS. Supplementing wheat DDGS with enzymes offers producers the option to use DDGS in their poultry feeds to save costs, without compromising bird performance.

At a time when feed ingredient prices are at an all time high, maximising the amount of nutrients that poultry extract from the feed is a key requisite for maximising feed efficiency.

Dr Aaron Cowieson, senior scientist at Danisco Animal Nutrition, presented two papers which examined how feed enzymes can improve the feeding value of corn/soy based diets. Adding a xylanase, amylase and protease enzyme combination to a corn/soy based broiler diet significantly improved the ileal digestibility of amino acids and improved the apparent metabolisable energy by 3%. The enzyme combination improved broiler weight gain by 6% and feed conversion by 5 points. All improvements in digestibility and bird performance due to enzyme addition reported above were highly significant (P<0.01). Dr Cowieson reported that part of the mechanism for the improvement in bird performance was due to the enzyme combination reducing the bird’s maintenance requirements, allowing more energy to be diverted to lean growth.

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