Effects of a mixture of xylanase and glucanase on digestibility of energy and dietary fiber in corn- or sorghum based diets fed to growing pigs

An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that an enzyme premix containing xylanase and glucanase improves the apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of energy and total dietary fiber (TDF) and the concentration of digestible energy (DE) and metabolizable energy (ME) in diets fed to growing pigs. A corn-soybean meal diet and a sorghum-soybean meal diet were formulated, and 4 additional diets were formulated by adding 400 g/kg distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) or 400 g/kg wheat middlings to the corn-based diet and the sorghum-based diet. Six additional diets were prepared by adding an enzyme premix including xylanase and β-glucanase to each of these diets. One hundred and forty-four growing pigs (61.7 ± 5.3 kg) were allotted to a randomized complete block design with 12 diets and 12 replicate pigs per diet. Pigs were adapted to the diets for 12 days before being moved to metabolism crates. Individual pig weights and feed consumption were recorded, and average daily feed intake (ADFI), average daily gain (ADG), and gain to feed ratio (G:F) were calculated for each dietary treatment. After 4 days of adaptation to the metabolism crates, urine and fecal materials were collected during the following 4 days according to the marker to marker approach. Results indicated that the ATTD of GE, and DE and ME increased (P