PSIV-16 Phytase Expressed from Schizosaccharomyces Pombe Ameliorates Footpad Lesions in Cage-Reared Broiler Chicks

Abstract

Abstract Footpad lesion is a problem that plagued the poultry industry, because it occurs in birds that are either reared in the cage or on the floor. Reports from previous studies about amelioration of footpad lesions by feeding phytase to floor-reared broiler chicks via reduction in litter moisture content is inconclusive. Therefore, phytase supplementation may have other potential mechanisms to improve the footpad lesions. The cage-reared broiler chicks were used in this study because they are divided with litter. A total of 234 1-d-old broiler chicks were randomly assigned to 3 groups based on the initial body weight (42.22 ± 0.18 g) with 6 replicate cages and 13 birds (mixed sex) per cage. The experimental period was 45 d. Dietary treatments were based on a corn-soybean meal-basal diet and supplemented with 500 and 750 FTU/kg S. pombe-expressed phytase. The unit of phytase (FTU) was defined as the amount of enzyme that catalyzes the release of one micromole phosphate from phytate per minute at 37°C and pH 5.5. Orthogonal contrasts were used to examine the linear and quadratic effects in response to increasing the dietary supplementation of phytase. We found that dietary supplementation of S. pombe-expressed phytase increased (P < 0.05) the apparent ileal calcium and phosphorus digestibility and toe ash in a dose-dependent manner, whereas decreased (P > 0.05) the footpad lesions score. From this, we considered that footpad lesions ameliorated by phytase supplementation were related to the improvement of calcium and phosphorus digestibility and toe ash.