Evaluation of Microbial Muramidase Supplementation on the Performance of Laying Hens

The cell walls of bacterial residues in the GIT, contain peptidoglycans (mainly Muramic acid). These residues can interfere with normal absorption in the gut. Muramidase cleaves the β-1,4-glycosidic linkages between N-acetylmuramic acid and N-acetyl glucosamine, the basic elements in the carbo-hydrate backbone of PGN from bacterial cell walls (Sais, et al., 2020). The current study evaluated a microbial muramidase on the performance of hens (Muramidase 007, DSM Nutritional Products). It was carried out at the Center of Teaching, Research and Extension in Poultry Production of the Veterinary College of the National University of Mexico in Mexico City, Mexico (16°C annual temperature average and 60% relative humidity). Five hundred and twenty-eight one-day-old Bovans pullets were randomly assigned to 5 experimental treatments. During production, 8 groups of 12 birds per treatment were evaluated. Four corn-soybean meal experimental diets were produced without (control diet -CD) and with different dosages of muramidase: low (LD 25,000 LSU (F)/Kg), medium (MD 35,000 LSU (F)/Kg), High (HD 45,000 LSU (F)/Kg) and low (L95 25,000 LSU (F)/Kg with 95% of the requirements for energy and protein. Diets were fed from the one-day-old until 32 w. The pullets were raised in cage and transferred to conventional cages at 16 weeks of age. All the birds received a simultaneous Newcastle vaccination at 10 days and 8 weeks old. The light program was established to 16 hrs. of photoperiod. Data were subjected to ANOVA analysis using the GLM procedure, and the means were separated by Tukey´s test. During the rearing period (wk 1-18) no differences were observed among treatments. The main results are shown in Table 1 for the whole production period. period with no significant differences (P>0.05) among treatments. In production, the L95 treatment showed a higher egg production in nine of the 13 weeks (19-32 wk) evaluated (P≤0.05), but not for the overall period. In the whole experiment the CD treatment showed a higher feed consumption consistently, being statistically higher in 5 experimental weeks, but not overall. In conclusion, the use of a muramidase at low level, allowed the dilution of nutrient density in the diet, without deleterious effects on production parameters in Bovans laying hens.

Table 1 - Effect of a microbial muramidase on the performance of laying hens (19-32 weeks).

Presented at the 34th Annual Australian Poultry Science Symposium 2023. For information on the next edition, click here.