Efficacy of β-mannanase on broiler growth performance and energy utilization in the presence of increasing dietary galactomannan.

An experiment was conducted to investigate the impact of β-mannanase inclusion on growth performance, viscosity, and energy utilization in broilers fed diets varying in galactomannan (GM) concentrations. Treatments were arranged as a 3 (GM concentration) × 3 (β-mannanase inclusion) factorial randomized complete block design with 12 replicates of 29 male broilers per replicate for a 42-d experiment. Efforts were made to reduce the amount of soybean meal, and thus GM, in the basal diet with guar gum included at 0, 0.21, or 0.42% to achieve a GM supplementation of 1,500 and 3,000 ppm, respectively. Beta-mannanase was included at 0, 200, or 400 g/ton. Broilers were fed a starter (d 0 to 14), grower (d 15 to 28), and finisher diets (d 29 to 42). Growth performance was monitored and ileal contents collected on d 14, 28, and 42 to determine ileal digestible energy (IDE) and intestinal viscosity. Increasing levels of GM negatively (P < 0.05) influenced body weight (BW) following the starter and grower periods and increased (P < 0.01) mortality corrected feed conversion ratio (FCR) throughout the study. Reduced growth performance was associated with increased (P < 0.05) intestinal viscosity and decreased (P < 0.05) IDE when GM inclusion was increased. Inclusion of β-mannanase in diets containing supplemental GM on d 28, increased average BW to levels similar to diets without supplemental GM. Improvements in FCR were also observed with β-mannanase inclusion in diets containing supplemental GM. Ileal digestible energy was increased (P < 0.05) with the addition of β-mannanase on d 28 of age. Multiple interactions in growth performance, intestinal viscosity, and IDE were associated with β-mannanase administration. In conclusion, β-mannanase improved IDE, reduced intestinal viscosity, and improved growth performance; however, the observed benefit was dependent upon dietary GM concentration.