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The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the effects of a Bacillus subtilis xylanase on nutrient digestibility, intestinal health, and growth performance of broiler chickens undergoing an intestinal challenge. Nine hundred one-day-old Cobb 500 male chicks were randomly distributed into three dietary treatments with 10 replicates (30 birds/pen) until 42 d. Treatments were: Control (CT) diet, energy reduction (ER) diet, and the ER diet supplemented with B. subtilis endo 1,4-β-xylanase at 100 g/t (ER+xylanase). The ER diets had metabolizable energy reductions as per manufacturer guidelines: 80, 82, 87, and 92 kcal/kg for pre-starter, starter, grower, and finisher, respectively. All birds were challenged with Eimeria spp. on d 1 and Clostridium perfringens on d 12-14. Feed intake, body weight gain (BWG), and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were evaluated weekly. On d 17, the intestinal permeability was determined using fluorescein isothiocyanate-dextran (FITC-d) as marker. On d 21, I See Inside (ISI) methodology assessed intestinal alterations. On days 21 and 42, nutrient digestibility and cecal short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) concentrations were calculated. Data underwent ANOVA or Kruskal-Wallis tests, followed by Fisher or Dunn tests, respectively. From 0 to 42 d, broilers fed the ER+xylanase diet had greater (P = 0.046) BWG than birds fed the ER diet, while FCR showed improvements in CT and ER+xylanase diets. Broilers fed the ER+xylanase diet had improved intestinal integrity with the lowest (P = 0.017) serum FITC-d concentration and highest (P = 0.057) Mucin-2. Pancreas ISI scores were worsened (P = 0.034) in CT and ER diets compared to ER+xylanase diet. Ileal digestibility of DM and energy, and SCFA were greater (P ≤ 0.006) in broilers fed the ER+xylanase diet compared to ER diet. In conclusion, the B. subtilis xylanase supplementation improved nutrient digestibility, enhanced intestinal barrier integrity and increased SCFA concentrations which improved growth performance in broilers undergoing an intestinal challenge. Results indicated that this xylanase was able to compensate the energy reduction in corn-soy diets fed to broiler chickens.

This study was conducted to evaluate whether adding β-mannanase alone or in combination with a multi-carbohydrase complex to simple and complex diets could improve diet digestibility, nutrient and energy metabolism, and gut health in weaned pigs. Thirty pigs (7.9 kg ± 0.851 kg) weaned at 28 days were randomly split into a 2 × 3 factorial arrangement, considering a simple (corn and soybean meal-based diet) or complex diet (13% point reduction in inclusion of soybean meal, 5% of whey power, and 2.5% of spray-dried plasma compared to the simple diet) and diet without any addition (control) or the addition of β-mannanase (BM; 0.300 g/kg of the diet) or β-mannanase plus a multi-carbohydrase complex blend such as xylanase, β-glucanase, and arabinofuranosidases (BM + MCC; 0.300 + 0.050 g/kg of the diet) for 17 days post-weaned. Total fecal and urine samples were collected on days 11–17. Fecal samples were collected from all pigs to identify fecal biomarkers using commercial ELISA tests. Blood samples were collected from all pigs at the end of the experimental period to assess serum concentrations of acute-phase proteins. All pigs were euthanized on day 18 for intestinal tissue collection. The simple diet had greater (p

(1) Background: This study was performed to evaluate whether the addition of β-mannanase alone or combined with a multi-carbohydrase complex can improve diet digestibility, nutrient and energy metabolism, and the gut health of growing pigs. (2) Methods: Twenty-four pigs (35.56 ± 3.81 kg) were fed a control corn–soybean meal-based diet (no addition) or a control diet with β-mannanase (BM; 300 g/ton) or control diet β-mannanase plus a multi-carbohydrase complex including xylanase, β-glucanase, and arabinofuranosidases (BM + MCC; 300 + 50 g/ton) for 13 days. Total fecal and urine samples were collected from days 6 to 12. The feces samples were collected from all the pigs to determine fecal biomarkers using commercial ELISA tests. Blood samples were collected from all the pigs on day 13 to assess the serum concentrations of acute-phase proteins. All the pigs were euthanized on day 13 for intestinal tissue collection for morphometric analysis. Data were submitted to variance analysis and differences were considered significant at p ≤ 0.05 and a trend for 0.05 < p ≤ 0.10. (3) Results: The addition of BM and BM + MCC resulted in greater dry matter, protein, and energy digestibility coefficients, and protein (2.87% and 2.60%) and energy (2.61% and 1.44%) metabolizability coefficients compared to control (p < 0.05). A greater retention of nitrogen ratio and lower fecal energy were observed in BM and BM + MCC than in the control (p < 0.01). Furthermore, the addition of BM and BM + MCC resulted in lower manure production (29.78 and 49.77%, respectively) and fecal moisture (p < 0.001) compared to the control. The BM addition resulted in a greater villus area and villi height to crypt depth ratio compared to the control (p < 0.05). The addition of BM and BM + MCC diets also reduced the fecal calprotectin levels by 52 and 56% in relation to the control pigs. (4) Conclusions: The use of β-mannanase alone or associated with multi-carbohydrase complex improved nutritional digestibility, nutrient and energy metabolism, and gut health, and reduced the manure production of growing pigs.