Enzymes in swine nutrition

Enzymes are active proteins that accelerate the breakdown of specific feed components to release nutrients for digestion and absorption. Enzymes are typically used in swine diets to degrade feed components resistant to endogenous enzymes, inactivate antinutritional factors, and supplement endogenous enzymes that are not present in sufficient amounts. Enzymes typically have designations with the suffix “ase” and are commonly produced by bacteria, fungi, or yeast. The most commonly used enzymes in swine diets are phytase, carbohydrases, and proteases (Jacela et al., 2009b). Phytase is certainly the most widely used among the enzymes due to its efficacy in releasing phosphorus from phytate. Supplementing exogenous enzymes in pig diets is an alternative solution to increase dietary energy and fiber digestibility to improve pig production performance at a low production cost and to reduce environmental impact with lower N and P excretions. The production stage, diet composition, enzyme source, amount and number of enzymes added, are factors to consider before using them. Phytases and Mannanases are commonly used at weaning and growing stages. Xylanases and Proteases have been reported to be used in all production stages. However, the highest yielding enzymes at weaning, growing and finishing stages were Phytases and Mannanases. Dietary supplementation of exogenous enzymes improves production characteristics at all stages of production.