The effect of multi-carbohydrase preparation on growth performance and nutrient utilization on broiler chickens fed diets with high inclusion of canola meal

Canola meal (CM) is a valuable source of protein for poultry, however it contains significant amount of non-starch polysaccharides (NSP). Supplementation of poultry diets containing CM with enzymes is an effective means of improving the quality of CM. The enzymatic degradation of NSP of diets containing CM will contribute to the production of NSP hydrolysis products, which may have a prebiotic effect in improving animal health and development. A series of the in vitro incubation studies were carried out to determine if various carbohydrase preparations can target NSP of CM. The most effective enzyme combination, expressing mainly the pectinase and xylanase activities, was studied further in a 3-wk (1-21 d of age) growth performance and NSP digestibility trial with broiler chickens. Broilers were assigned to 3 dietary treatments, each consisting of 8 pens of 5 birds each, and were fed a control corn/CM-based starter and grower diets, and diets supplemented with enzyme cocktail at two levels – 0.03% and 0.15%. In comparison to the control diets, birds fed the diet supplemented with the high concentration of carbohydrases showed significantly (P<0.05) higher body weight gain during the grower phase and the entire study. Carbohydrase enzyme combination had a significant effect on NSP digestibility (P<0.05), which increased from 0.12% for the control treatment to 19.4%, and 18.6% for the two enzyme-supplemented diets, respectively. 

Our research suggests that administation of carbohydrase enzyme in diets with high inclusion of canola meal can improve growth performance and NSP digestibility in poultry. 

Key words: carbohydrase, canola meal, non-starch polysaccharides (NSP), broiler chicken.

Published in the proceedings of the Animal Nutrition Conference of Canada 2020. For information on the event, past and future editions, check out https://animalnutritionconference.ca/.