What is SuperZyme?
SuperZyme is a water-soluble cocktail of exogenous enzymes aiding the poultry digestive system in poultry on a maize/soya-based diet. The product contains Xylanase, Beta-Mannanase, Amylase and Phytase to make up a potent cocktail of exogenous enzymes that will improve digesta viscosity, reduce gut inflammation, improve energy and protein availability, reduce gut slouching, and prevent dysbacteriosis.
Why do poultry need enzymes?
Modern day broiler diets are mostly plant based and in South Africa it contains maize and soya as main raw materials but also by products from the wheat, maize, and sunflower sources. Plant cell walls are not optimally digested by broiler chickens as it contains Non-Starch Polysaccharides (NSP’s) (hemicellulose components) that is poorly digested by poultry. This leads to a significant portion of the diet not available for digestion and absorption. The addition of exogenous enzymes that will assist in breaking down the plant cell wall components in the diet will increase the availability of metabolizable energy and amino acids. Various studies showed that the addition of xylanase and mannanase to vegetable-based diets will increase the availability of energy and amino acids. Fast growing poultry especially broiler chickens will benefit from taking in exogenous enzymes applicable to their diet type due to the fast pace of passage of the digesta through the digestive system. For a broiler that gets slaughtered on days 30 – 32 the feed will start to show up in the small intestine already 30 minutes to one hour after ingestion. A 30-day old broiler chicken will consume 10% daily of its body weight to support its genetic growth curve. This will require for the feed ingredients/ingesta passing through the gut to be of optimal viscosity. High viscous ingesta will pass slower through the gut and cause inflammation, excess mucous formation, and growth of unwanted acteria. The presence of hemicellulose which is a soluble but indigestible portion of the maize/soya diet will increase the viscosity of the digesta and lead to bad bacteria growing on the undigestible digesta in the lower gut causing dysbacteriosis, poor growth and poor feed conversion. The result of high hemicellulose content and resultant dysbacteriosis will result in watery digesta and faeces with undigested feed particles present or as a slimy mixture with bubbles due to the mucous layers being sloughed from the gut wall and unwanted bacterial growth. It was shown that the addition of hemicellulase enzymes to diets high in hemicellulose will reduce the viscosity of the ingesta by up to 34 % – Journal of Food Science, October 2002
Why are the hemicellulose enzymes xylanase and mannanase added to the cocktail?
Corn and Soybean Meal based diets are incompletely digested by poultry due to the presence of nonstarch polysaccharides (NSP’s). The levels of NSP’s in Maize varies between 6% – 9% and in Soybean Meal from 14% to 30% (Jasek, Poultry Science 2018). The predominant hemicellulose types present in maize is xylan and in soya plant walls its mannan type NSP’s. Xylanase hydrolyses the xylose polysaccharide fraction of hemicellulose present in grains such as corn and wheat. Mannanase on the other hand specifically targets mannose polysaccharides, a hemicellulose component present in legume seeds and plant material such as soya beans.
Starch and poultry digestion is hampered by cell walls and the presence of hemicellulose NSP’s in the plant cell walls. Hemicellulose enzymes will improve starch and protein availability by speeding up the breakdown of the cell walls in which the hemicellulose components are found. This opening up of the plant cells will improve the plant nutrient digestion and absorption by die broiler chicken mostly immature digestive system.
Why are amylase and phytase added to the cocktail?
Amylase is an exogenous carbohydrase enzyme acting to break down the complex crystalline starch molecules. The addition of amylase will assist the immature chicken gut to start open starch molecules even before the ingesta reaches the small intestine and thus improve the rate of starch digestion and absorption of glucose molecules. Combined with the hemicellulase enzymes the amylase will improve the speed of digestion and absorption of glucose from the gut of the broiler chicken, thus boosting energy availability and reduce excess starch that pass into the lower gut and act as growth medium of
undesirous bacteria.
The same principle applies for plant cell wall bound phosphorous where it is bound in the cell wall as phytic acid (phytate) which is also an antinutritive factor in the diet of chickens. The addition of phytase to the enzyme mix will complement the breakdown of the cell wall and improve the release of phosphorous into the digestive system. The Hemicellulase enzymes will break down the cell walls and open the phytate for the phytase enzyme. Phosphorous is sometimes marginal in broiler diets and the addition of Phytase will help to prevent to occurrence of leg and skeletal problems.
Why application through the drinking water?
Enzymes are complex protein molecules made up of amino acids bound in polypeptide chains that are folded to form a three- and four-dimensional structure that is highly specific on its substrate. Any small change on this complex structure will lead to reduction in the enzyme activity. It is thus imperative to ensure that the exogenous enzymes used in animal nutrition be protected from any structural damage to ensure optimal enzyme activity. Many exogenous enzyme products are added through the animal feed and must withstand high temperatures, friction, pressure and exposure during the mixing, conditioning, pelleting, storage, and transport of the animal feed. In South Africa it is also common to use feed preservatives that is based on formaldehyde and/or feed ingredients such as feather meal that is treated with formaldehyde to prevent spoilage and pathogens to enter the food chain. Formaldehyde is a well-known crosslinking agent that can inactivate or immobilize proteins and could potentially damage enzymes that was added to the diet. It was showed by Dos Santos in 2013 Journal of Applied Poultry Research that the addition of Formaldehyde products to animal feeds will reduce the phytase activity recovered in feed post mixing and pelleting.
SuperZyme is applied through the drinking water to improve availability, speed of treatment, flexibility of treatment and protection of the enzyme activity. Part of the SuperZyme carrier is a whey-based material that will protect the enzyme by inactivation of chlorine and other disinfectants in the water. The whey-based carrier will also neutralize high alkaline waters that could further reduce enzyme activity as exogenous enzymes are most active at lower pH levels.
Exogenous carbohydrase enzymes such as what is present in SuperZyme will potentially also limit the formation and growth of biofilm is drinker lines and regulators. Biofilm is a sticky mixture of extracellular material produced by the combined bacteria growing in the drinker lines. These bacteria mostly pathogenic bacteria such as e. coli, listeria, salmonella and pseudomonas produce extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) which consists mainly of polysaccharides that is broken down by
carbohydrase enzymes.
Advantages Summarised
The addition of SuperZyme exogenous enzyme cocktail to the drinking water of fast-growing broiler chickens will:
- Reduce the bacterial growth on NSP’s compounds in the lower gut.
- Reduce ingesta viscosity and improve digesta movement.
- Reduce gut wall inflammation and resultant “slouching”.
- Reduce the incidence of dysbacteriosis.
- Improve energy and protein availability.
- Reduce the presence of excess nutrients in the lower gut.
- Reduce the presence of antinutritive factors such as hemicellulose and phytic acid and
- Improve the manure quality.
SuperZyme Application and Programs for Broilers and Layers
SuperZyme is easily soluble in drinking water and can be applied through header tanks by hand or through a dosing pump system.
Rate of application is 200 grams per 1,000 litres of drinking water for at least 6 to 8 hours per day.
Therapeutical application
Apply for at least 3 to 5 days at a time during periods when gut health start to deteriorates, diets change, dysbacteriosis occur, slouching is visible or poor growth are seen.
Preventative application
Early application will be advantageous as it will prevent hemicellulose related problems from occurring and improve feed conversion and growth as the application of SuperZyme will improve the rate and effectivity of digestion and feed/ingesta passage through the gut.
Apply from at least 4 – 5 days during the 7 – 14-day period and repeat again during the day 18 – 25-
day period.
Alternatively apply at a continuous dose for at least 2 – 3 hours per day from day one to slaughter.
Contact you nearest Super Agri Science representative for a detailed program and cost calculator.