Understanding the true impact of non-starch polysaccharides in pig diets

摘要

The impact of dietary fibre, and partic-ularly non-starch polysaccharides(NSPs), on monogastric digestion and performance was first investigated in detail during the early 1980s. As the key NSPs were identified, so too were NSP-degrading feed enzymes that could be commercialised to help overcome associated issues.Restricted nutrient digestibility was the biggest concern for pig producers and remains an issue today, resulting in significant reductions in feed efficiency and growth, especially with the recent increased use of higher-fibre ingredients such as distillers' grains in grower and finisher feeds.Unlike phytases, which have become almost ubiquitous across all monogastric feeds, there is still little consensus on how to achieve the greatest benefits when using feed enzymes to target NSPs. This is predominantly due to the poor understanding of both the NSPs themselves, and how to subsequently optimise NSP enzyme use, and is despite commercial feed enzymes having evolved significantly over the past three decades and being widely used in swine diets worldwide.