New Strategies Influencing Gut Functionality And Animal Performance

Since the ban of antibiotic growth promoters in the European Union, there is a focus on looking at nutritional solutions to reduce the incidence of those diseases that increased in consequence. One strategy considers the inclusion and manipulation of dietary fibre as a mechanism to modulate the gastrointestinal environment and to bolster animal health. Thus non-starch polysaccharide (NSP) degrading enzymes (NSPase) such as xylanase, oligosaccharides such as xylo-oligosaccharides (XOS) and arabinoxylo-oligosaccharides (AXOS) and probiotics like live yeast have been suggested as a means to optimise fibre use to the advantage of the host and create a more favourable condition for intestinal health and function. These products increase the production of intestinal microbial derived NSPases in the hindgut thereby increasing the fibre fermentative capacity of the commensal microbiota, making use of fibre that otherwise would be excreted. However, many questions remain such as what types of fermentable oligosaccharides are produced by xylanases in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) and which factors influence their production. Finally, a new category of product termed “stimbiotic” is introduced in the scientific literature which describes products able to stimulate a fibre-degrading microbiome to increase fibre fermentability. This is distinct from a prebiotic mechanism which has been related to xylanase supplementation to date.

Presented at the International Fibre Summit 2019 (https://internationalfibre.com/). Reproduced with permission from the organizers.