Properties of corn-expressed carbohydrase AC1 in swine diets and its effects on apparent ileal digestibility, performance, hematology, and serum chemistry

Carbohydrases are often incorporated into livestock feed as digestive aids to improve animal performance. AC1 is a thermostable carbohydrase with β-1,4-glucanase, endo-cellulase, and cellobiohydrolase activity. AC1 has been expressed in corn, where it accumulates in the grain for easy inclusion in animal diets. Incorporating the enzyme in high-fiber diets (corn-soy supplemented with distiller's dry grains with solubles) that were fed to 5-week-old pigs led to a trend of decreasing viscosity of the digesta as the dose of the enzyme increased (P = 0.092). AC1 also tended to increase the apparent ileal digestibility (AID) of neutral detergent fiber (P = 0.076). When fed diets containing 2126 U/kg AC1, pigs experienced no adverse effects in terms of performance metrics (body weights, average daily gain, average daily feed intake and gain-to-feed ratio), hematology, blood chemistry or general health when compared to pigs fed a control diet that lacked AC1.