Starch digestion capacity of poultry

Starch is quantitatively the most important nutrient in poultry diets and will to a large extent be present as intact starch granules due to very limited extent of gelatinization during pelleting. Although native starch is difficult to digest due to a semi-crystalline structure, even fast-growing broiler chickens appears to be able to digest this starch more or less completely during passage through the jejunum. However, reduced starch digestibility has been observed, particularly in pelleted diets containing large quantities of wheat. Although properties of the starch granule such as size and components on the granule surface may affect digestibility, the entrapment of starch granules in cell walls and a protein matrix may be even more important factors impeding starch digestion. In that case, this and the fact that amylase secretion is normally very high in poultry may explain the lack of convincing effects of exogenous alpha-amylase added to the diet. However, few well-designed experiments assessing mechanisms of starch digestion and the effect of alpha-amylase supplementation have been carried out, and thus more research is needed in this important area.