Effects of dietary multienzymes on the growth performance, digestive enzyme activity, nutrient digestibility, excreta noxious gas emission, and nutrient transporter gene expression in white feather broilers

Abstract

Abstract Adding multienzymes to poultry feed rations is recognized as a nutritional strategy aimed at improving poultry performance and health status. Nonetheless, some literatures present an ongoing debate about the extent of multienzymes beneficial impact on poultry growth performance. This study aimed to explore the impacts of dietary multienzyme supplementation on broilers, focusing specifically on growth performance, carcass characteristics, apparent nutrient digestibility, excreta noxious gas emission, and intestinal nutrient transporter gene expression. A total of 3,200 broilers were randomly assigned to five groups (eight replicates per treatment group) and treated with the following: normal control (CON), CON + 100 g/t multienzyme (ME100), CON + 150 g/t multienzyme (ME150), CON + 200 g/t multienzyme (ME200), and CON + 250 g/t multienzyme (ME250). Supplementing with multienzymes significantly influenced the feed conversion rate (linear, P = 0.007; quadratic, P = 0.024) and the European broiler index (linear, P = 0.004; quadratic, P = 0.016) in broilers. Dietary multienzymes significantly influenced apparent metabolizable energy (quadratic, P = 0.015) and neutral detergent fiber (quadratic, P < 0.001). Moreover, multienzyme supplementation in the diet also decreased the emission of ammonia (linear, P = 0.001; quadratic, P = 0.006) and hydrogen sulfide (quadratic, P = 0.006) in the excreta. In addition, dietary multi-enzyme notably elevated (P < 0.05) the mRNA expression of nutrient transporter genes, including peptide transporter 1 (PePT1), Na-dependent neutral amino acid transporter (B0AT), glucose transporter 2 (GLUT2), and fatty acid binding protein1 (FABP1). These findings suggest that dietary supplementation with multienzymes can improve the efficiency of feed utilization, and the digestion and absorption of nutrients and reduce excreta gas emission. Furthermore, this study provides a theoretical basis for advancing the use of multienzymes in broiler production.