Efficacy of feed enzymes in pig and poultry diets containing distillers dried grains with solubles: a review

Distiller's dried grains with solubles (DDGS), a coproduct of the ethanol industry, are often used as feed material in livestock and poultry nutrition. Results of many experiments have indicated, however, that a high dietary level of DDGS can negatively affect the digestibility of nutrients and the performance of monogastric animals due to their high content of non-starch polysaccharides (NSP). Nevertheless, using high levels of DDGS as a protein source in livestock diets can be still economically justifiable in view of the rising prices of soya bean meal and other protein sources. The aim of some recent experiments with poultry and pigs was to improve the nutritional efficacy of high-NSP diets through the addition of feed enzymes. As presented and discussed in this review article, the efficacy of feed enzymes added to poultry and pig diets containing DDGS is not consistent and depends on many factors. However, NSP-hydrolysing enzymes generally seemed to be more efficient than phytases in terms of the digestibility of nutrients and the growth performance of poultry and pigs fed high-DDGS diets. For this reason, supplementation with NSP-hydrolysing enzymes could be an efficient way to enable the use of increased levels of DDGS in poultry and pig diets.