Amylase In Feed

Types of enzymes used in feed applications Enzymes involved in the digestion of foodstuffs are coming under the classes of hydrolases. Again hydrolases are divided into different types depends on the substrate they works. The feed contains different substrates and so different enzymes function on different substrates, i.e. enzyme works with substrate specificity. The table 1 explains some of the enzymes that have been used in aquafeed for their potential benefit to the aquaculture industry.

Table 1- Enzymes for feed applications and their specific function

Enzyme Function

Amylase Utilization of starch and complex polysaccharides

Arabinase, Pectinase Degradation of anti-nutritional factors

Mannanase Degradation of mannans, a non-starch

Amylase is an enzyme responsible for digesting starch present in plant foodstuffs. However, the addition of amylase in feed improves the digestibility of starch, thus resulting in more available energy. Animals have Carbohydrase enzymes to digest starch; however, they do not have the enzymes to digest cellulose (fiber). Thus, animals need a dietary source of cellulase to digest cellulose (fiber). Xylanase is another enzyme role in the digestion of fibrous materials such as grains. Many plants based ingredients poses lengthy, complex fibrous molecules called as non-starch polysaccharides (NSPs). They are antinutrients because it increases the viscosity of nutrients digestion and blocks them for utilization. The addition of NSP enzymes to diet facilitates the animals to breakdown NSP, so that feed results in the better digestion and in feed efficiency. Many researchers observed a dose-dependent response in animals with respect to dietary supplementation of NSP-enzymes. Supplementation of NSP enzymes to the diet reduces the gut viscosity and improves animal performance. Researchers found that the improvement of performance in animals by NSP-enzymes is because, the role of enzyme over gut viscosity and subsequently by gut microfora digestion. Therefore, the addition of carbohydrases is required in the feed, so that animals can extract the energy from the available carbohydrate substrate for growth and