September 25, 2018

AB Vista: Dietary arabinoxylan-oligosaccharides kick start arabinoxylan degradation in ageing broiler

Researchers at this year's European Poultry Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia (September 17-21) presented new data to shed light on the proposed mechanism of action of xylanases that are frequently used in broiler diets to improve feed digestibility by degrading the arabinoxylan fraction of dietary fibre, AB Vista said.

Through the production of small soluble fibre fragments, arabinoxylo-oligosaccharides (AXOS), xylanases can exert a prebiotic effect in the gastrointestinal tract of broilers. This effect is thought to be moderated by broiler age, due to differences in the relative maturity of the gut microbiome with time.

Research presented by KU Leuven (Belgium), and with support from AB Vista, measured the impact of broiler age on arabinoxylan digestion in the GI tract when supplementing diets with AXOS. Chicks supplemented from hatching with 0.5% AXOS in a wheat-based diet demonstrated higher levels of arabinoxylan solubilisation and fermentation, compared to control birds at 5 days of age.

AXOS supplementation in young broilers was shown to stimulate arabinoxylan degradation, speeding up the development of a fibre-fermenting microbiome in the young broiler. This training or stimulation effect could enable greater functional value to be extracted from dietary fibre in broiler feed.