Effect of β-glucanase supplementation on pancreatic enzyme activity and nutrient digestibility in piglets fed diets based on hulled and hulless barley varieties

Forty piglets, weaned at four weeks of age, were housed individually in metabolism cages and fed diets based on either a hulled (var. Arra) or hulless (var. Condor) barley variety with or without added beta-glucanase (0.25 g/kg feed) for a 21-day period, chromic oxide was used as an indigestible marker. At the end of the experiment the pigs were slaughtered and the entire gastrointestinal (GI) tract removed and divided into nine sections comprising: the stomach, four small intestinal sections of equal length, the caecum, ascending and descending colon and the rectum. Digesta from each of the GI segments was analysed for dry matter and nutrient digestibility, viscosity was measured in the content hom the stomach and small intestine, and activities of the digestive enzymes trypsin, chymotrypsin, amylase and Lipase were determined in the small intestinal sections as well as in homogenates of pancreatic tissue. Supplementation with beta-glucanase increased (P < 0.05) the digestibility of mixed linked beta(1 --> 3, 1 --> 4)-D-glucan and reduced digesta viscosity in the upper GI tract without affecting either the digestibility of starch and nitrogen or live weight gain and the feed/gain ratio. The effects of P-glucanase supplementation on digestive enzyme activities in intestinal contents and pancreatic tissue were not significant. A significant higher digestibility of total NSP was found at most sites of the GI tract when feeding the Condor diets. The Condor diets also had a 5-10% higher digestibility of fat and energy at distal ileum and at the total tract while there was only a tendency of improvements in the Live weight gain and the feed/gain ratio. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.