Effects of Non-starch Polysaccharide-degrading Enzymes on Nutrient Digestibility, Growth Performance and Blood Profiles of Growing Pigs Fed a Diet Based on Corn and Soybean Meal

Two experiments with growing pigs were conducted to investigate the effects of two distinct multienzyme preparations on nutrient digestibility, growth performance and blood profiles. In Exp. 1, a total of 96 pigs (29.7 +/- 0.69 kg) were utilized in a 42-day performance and digestibility trial using four dietary treatments: CON (control diet), ENDO (control+0.10% Endopower), NSPase1 (control+0.10% NSPase) and NSPase2 (control+0.20% NSPase). Endopower was a commercial multienzyme preparation which contained alpha-galactosidase, galactomannase, xylanase and beta-glucanase. NSPase mainly contained alpha-1,6-beta-galactosidase, beta-1,4- mannanase and beta-1,4-mannosidase. There were six replication pens per treatment with four pigs per pen. Pigs fed NSPase1 diet had a higher ADG (p<0.05) and G:F (p<0.05) than those fed the control diet. There were no significant differences in growth performance among the multienzyme treatments (p>0.05). Compared with CON, apparent digestibility of DM was increased (p<0.05) by ENDO treatment. N digestibility was improved (p<0.05) in response to multienzyme treatments during the experimental period. Blood urea nitrogen (BUN) was higher (p<0.05) in ENDO treatment than in CON and NSPase1 treatments at the end of the experiment, while the glucose level improved (p<0.05) due to ENDO and NSPase2 treatments. In Exp. 2, four ileal-cannulated, growing barrows (20.17 +/- 1.31 kg) were housed in individual metabolism crates and randomly assigned to I of 4 treatments (same as Exp. 1) within a 4x4 Latin square design. Enzyme supplementations improved the majority of apparent ileal amino acid digestibilities (p<0.05). It is concluded that the supplementation of NSPase1 improved growth performance as well as N digestibility and partially improved apparent ileal amino acid digestibility in growing pigs fed a diet based on corn and soybean meal.