The best of both worlds: Probiotics with enzymes
Producing healthy and high-yielding animals is the outcome of multifactorial management. From a feed perspective, it is not only about combining raw materials to formulate the perfect diet. It has become an important question which feed additives to include.
The question about feed additives can be asked with a good cause: these additives significantly improve animal performance, health and efficiency, but there are many to choose from. It has become imperative to not only make the right decision on which and how many different types of feed additives to apply, but also to understand how they might interact with one another. By making the right combination, it is possible to maximise the efficacy of the feed additives.
A good example is combining probiotics with fibre-degrading enzymes. Both are already essential ingredients in modern diets. Combining them has become standard practice, although some still wonder if adding a probiotic to an enzyme-supplemented diet brings any benefit. The answer is a definite “yes.”
Benefits of probiotics and enzymes
To evaluate the added benefit of a probiotic in an enzyme-supplemented diet, a fibre-degrading xylanase complex (Hostazym X) was combined with probiotic Clostridium butyricum (Miya-Gold/Top Gut). Its effect on technical performance as well as small intestine morphology was recorded. A total of 30 weaned piglets (7 kg body weight) were allocated to 3 different dietary treatments. Pelleted diets were applied ad libitum in 2 phases (pre-starter and starter) and based on maize, broken rice and soybean meal.
Apart from the control group, the animals received 100 g/ton of the xylanase (1,500 EPU/kg) or 100 g/ton xylanase combined with 500 g/ton C. butyricum (2.5 x 1011 CFU/ton). The trial started immediately after weaning and lasted for 42 days. The researchers took samples to determine intestinal morphology on day 43.
As shown in Table 1, technical performance improved for the enzyme group compared to the control group (P < 0.05). When the probiotic was added, results were even better, underlining the sense of making this combination, as can be learned from the same table: intestinal morphology parameters improved significantly and did so the most for the combination group (P < 0.05), indicating an improved gut health and thus functioning for the treatment groups.
Looking into the mechanism behind these effects, it is interesting to take a closer look at why this specific combination of enzyme and probiotic was made. Clostridium butyricum is not only a well-known butyrate producer but is also capable of utilising by-products produced by the xylanase. As such, this prebiotic effect of the enzyme supports the probiotic in exerting its own positive effects. The beauty of this added benefit is that it does not cost anything extra: it can be obtained simply by making the right combination of feed additives, which are already part of the diet anyway.
In summary, modern feed formulations go beyond raw materials only. Feed additives are essential parts of high-performing diets and support an efficient use of supplemented feed, thereby improving final technical performance as well as animal health. Making the right combination of feed additives can push this benefit further, as shown here for this combination.
