Enzyme Use in Swine Feeds
05.28.2009
Enzyme use in swine feeds help reduce costs and improve efficiencies
The acceptance and utilization of enzymes by the animal feed industry has become widespread in the last decade, As the understanding of enzymes and their properties has grown, so have both their use and their effectiveness as feed supplements, Why the interest in enzymes by animal nutritionists? The purpose of using enzymes in monogastric animals is to improve availability of nutrients in feedstuffs, the result are improved feed utilization and a reduced impact of anti-nutritional components that can otherwise negatively affect animal production and performance.
The European nations have used enzyme type products for a number of years and had success with them. They have not been widely used in the U.S. for two basic reasons. 1. We have had abundance of inexpensive ingredients to feed our livestock. 2. There has not been as much pressure to eliminate feed grade medications in livestock feeds. Well the time has arrived when both of these reasons have been eliminated in the U.S. also.
Currently we are evaluating and using a product from Alltech called Allzyme SSF in swine diets. Alltech is an international company that for the last 25 years has been researching and providing nutritional solutions to the challenges of the animal production industry. They provide many of the enzymes used in the ethanol and distilling industries throughout the world.
The addition of SSF to the diet will improve digestion and the release of nutrients from the diet and will be expressed through improved animal performance e.g. weight gain, feed efficiency. SSF takes advantage of the additional protein, amino acids, energy and phosphate in the ingredients you use, by enzyme activity breaking down those ingredients further in the hog’s digestive tract and making them available for absorbsion.
Peter Spring, Swiss College of Agriculture,Switzerland, discussed pig trials with Allzyme SSF containing multiple enzymatic activities compared to unidentified commercial enzymes. Enhanced releases of carbohydrate, protein and phosphorus have been reported from using the SSF product. The addition of 500 g/mt of the SSF product was equivalent to adding 0.11% phosphorus to the diet. In Asia, growing-finishing pigs on a wheat-based diet with two stepwise reductions in digestible energy and available phosphorus showed improved ADG by 8% and 15% and feed conversion ratio by -9% and -14% when the SSF
product was added. A small-scale pilot study conducted in Switzerland demonstrated improved ADG, feed conversion ratio and carcass weights with the SSF product (200 g/mt) of +3.33%, -4.05% and +0.6% (actual), respectively, compared to the same level of commercial enzymes.. through improved digestibility, including when the additive is used in combination with dried distillers grains with soluble for pigs.
This summer looks like another repeat of the previous year where feed ingredients will become expensive. Products like SSF offer some alternatives if used properly and the diet is formulated to take advantage of the enzyme products. For more information, contact the staff at the Livestock Service Centers in Klossner or LeSueur.