Effect of protease supplementation on apparent ileal crude protein and amino acid digestibility of over-processed soybean meals in broilers

Background: Nutritional value of proteins in feed ingredients can be negatively affected by hydrothermal processing, which causes large variation in the bioavailability of amino acids(AA) and negatively affects animal productive performance. Supplementation of exogenous proteases could increase the rate of digestion of damaged proteins, thereby increasing overall AA digestibility and bioavailability. The aim was to determine the effect of exogenous protease supplementation on the apparent ileal digestibility(AID) of crude protein(CP) and AA of soybean meals(SBM) with different degrees of hydrothermal processing in broilers.Methods: The experiment involved a 3 × 2 factorial arrangement, with SBM processing time(commercial SBM or autoclaved for 30 or 60 min at 120 ℃) and protease supplementation(not supplemented and supplemented) as factors. Protease was included at three times the recommended dose(0.06%) and the experimental diets were fed from 15 to 21 d.Results: The interaction between the effects of SBM processing and protease supplementation was significant for the AID of CP(P = 0.01), Trp(P = 0.01), Gly(P = 0.03) and Pro(P = 0.03), and also for the average daily gain(P = 0.01)and feed conversion ratio(P = 0.04). Increasing the processing time of SBM decreased(P < 0.0001) the AID of all amino acids, whilst the effect of protease supplementation was only significant for the AID of Phe(P = 0.02) and Tyr(P = 0.01).Conclusions: Exogenous protease supplementation at three times the commercial dose does not seem to offset the negative effects of hydrothermal processing of SBM on the apparent ileal digestibility of CP and amino acids or performance of broilers. Whilst positive numerical improvements of digestibility and performance(ADG and FCR)were noticed with protease supplementation at relatively mild processing levels, negative results were obtained with the harsh-processed meals.

Physical and chemical changes of rapeseed meal proteins during toasting and their effects on in vitro digestibility

Background： Toasting during the production of rapeseed meal（RSM） decreases ileal crude protein（CP） and amino acid（AA） digestibility. The mechanisms that determine the decrease in digestibility have not been fully elucidated. A high protein quality, low-denatured, RSM was produced and toasted up to 120 min, with samples taken every 20 min. The aim of this study was to characterize secondary structure and chemical changes of proteins and glucosinolates occurring during toasting of RSM and the effects on its in vitro CP digestibility.Results： The decrease in protein solubility and the increase of intermolecular β-sheets with increasing toasting time were indications of protein aggregation. The contents of NDF and ADIN increased with increasing toasting time.Contents of arginine, lysine and O-methylisourea reactive lysine（OMIU-RL） linearly decreased with increasing toasting time, with a larger decrease of OMIU-RL than lysine. First-order reactions calculated from the measured parameters show that glucosinolates were degraded faster than lysine, OMIU-RL and arginine and that physical changes to proteins seem to occur before chemical changes during toasting. Despite the drastic physical and chemical changes noticed on the proteins, the coefficient of in vitro CP digestibility ranged from 0.776 to 0.750 and there were no effects on the extent of protein hydrolysis after 120 min. In contrast, the rate of protein hydrolysis linearly decreased with increasing toasting time, which was largely correlated to the decrease in protein solubility, lysine and OMIU-RL observed. Rate of protein hydrolysis was more than 2-fold higher for the untoasted RSM compared to the 120 min toasted material.Conclusions： Increasing the toasting time for the production of RSM causes physical and chemical changes to the proteins that decrease the rate of protein hydrolysis. The observed decrease in the rate of protein hydrolysis could impact protein digestion and utilization.