Enzymes for Animal Feed

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Animal feed is composed of plant material, cereals and vegetable proteins, which cannot be fully digested and utilised by animals. Many cereals have a proportion of their energy in the form of non­starch polysaccharides (NSPs), more commonly known as fibre. Enzymes are to break down these NSPs, which lead in increase of metabolisable energy and protein utilisation.

In some cereals, a large part of the NSP is soluble and causes high viscosity in the small intestine of a monogastric (simple single-chambered stomach) animal . As a result, digestion becomes impaired. Selected microbial enzymes can partially degrade this NSP, lowering viscosity in the intestine and improving feed utilisation.

Many vegetable protein sources, such as soybean meal, also contain NSP. The addition of selected microbial enzymes can be used to break down the NSP and make it available to the animal. Just as with cereals, the metabolisable energy and protein utilisation for vegetable protein sources can be improved by using the correct combination of amylases and proteases.

Maize (corn) has a low content of soluble NSPs and is considered to be an ideal cereal. Other cereals contain higher amounts of NSPs that normally impair feed utilisation.

Some cereals are also avoided in poultry diets due to the adverse effects caused by NSP. Barley is a prime example because inclusion of more than 10% barley in broiler diets gives rise to wet and sticky droppings as well as reduced growth rates. This is due to beta glucan, a soluble, high viscosity NSP located in the cell walls of the barley grain. By adding microbial enzymes to the barley based feed, the NSP could be degraded giving an improvement in droppings, better feed utilisation and faster growth rate.

(source: MAPS)

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