Energy values evaluation and improvement of soybean meal in broiler chickens through supplemental mutienzyme

This study measured the metabolizable energy of soybean meal (SBM) and evaluated effects of soybean meal specific enzymes supplementation in corn-soybean diets on growth performance, intestinal digestion properties and energy values of 28-day-old broilers. A total of 336 one-day-old male AA broiler chickens were distributed to 7 groups in a completely random design. The birds were given 7 diets containing 6 diets with different combined soybean meals and a fasting treatment, 8 replicates per treatment and 6 birds per replicate (Trial 1). A total of 672 one-day-old male AA broiler chickens were randomly allocated to 7 dietary treatments including a control diet and 6 diets supplemented with 300 mg/kg α-galactosidase, 200 mg/kg β-mannanase, and 300 mg/kg protease individually or in combination (Trial 2). Apparent metabolizable energy (AME) of broilers was measured from d 25 to 27 in both trial 1 and trial 2. The results showed that AME values of combined soybean meals averaged 2,894 kcal/kg. Dietary β-mannanase and protease supplementation increased body weight gain (P < 0.05) during d 0 to 14, whereas did not affect the growth performance (P > 0.05) during d 14 to 28. Addition of β-mannanase in combination with other enzymes significantly increased lipase and trypsin content (P < 0.05) in ileum. In addition, dietary β-mannanase and protease supplementation individually or in combination enhanced trypsin enzyme content in jejunum (P < 0.05). The β-mannanase enzyme enhanced villus height and villus height to crypt depth ratio (P < 0.05) of ileum compared with control diet. Moreover, supplementation of enzyme except for protease enhanced raffinose and stachyose degradation ratio (P < 0.05). Dietary β-mannanase supplementation individually or in combination enhanced AME and AMEn values (P < 0.05). This study demonstrated that dietary enzyme supplementation especially β-mannanase improved intestinal digestion properties and contributed to high energy values.