Effects of alkaline protease on the production performance, egg quality, and cecal microbiota of hens during late laying period

Effects supplementation of novel multi-enzyme on laying performance, egg quality, and intestinal health and digestive function of laying hens

This study investigated the effects of multi-enzyme supplementation on various aspects of laying hens, including laying performance, egg quality, intestinal health and digestive function. In total, 384 Jingfen No.6 laying hens at 65-week-age were randomly assigned to four distinct dietary treatments: a basal diet (CON), CON supplemented with 150 g/t multi-enzyme (T1), CON with 300 g/t multi-enzyme (T2), and 600 g/t multi-enzyme (T3). A significant linear (P = 0.044) and quadratic (P = 0.014) increase was observed in the laying rate, while the feed/egg ratio exhibited a linear (P = 0.001) and quadratic (P < 0.001) decrease with increasing multi-enzyme supplementation. Additionally, linear (P < 0.05) and quadratic (P < 0.05) increases were observed in yolk rate and haugh unit with increasing levels of multi-enzyme supplementation. The trypsin activity in the duodenum and crude protein digestibility showed linear (P < 0.05) and quadratic (P < 0.05) increase with the addition of multi-enzyme. Furthermore, lipase and amylase activities in the duodenum increased quadratically (P = 0.041) and linearly (P = 0.040), respectively. Both jejunal and ileal digesta viscosities showed linear (P < 0.05) and quadratic (P < 0.05) decrease with the increasing addition of multi-enzyme. Moreover, multi-enzyme supplementation significantly increased (P < 0.05) the number of goblet cells in the intestinal of the treatment groups. The mRNA expression of Occludin-1, mucin 2 (MUC-2), large neutral amino acids transporter small subunit 1 (LAT-1) in the jejunum were significantly increased (P < 0.05) in the treatment groups (T1, T2 and T3) compared to the CON group. Additionally, the mRNA expression of solute carrier family 6-member 19 (B0AT-1) and large neutral amino acids transporter small subunit 4 (LAT-4) were significantly evaluated (P < 0.05) in the T2 and T3 groups, respectively. In conclusion, multi-enzyme supplementation enhanced digestive enzyme activities and intestinal barrier function, reduced intestinal digesta viscosity, and regulated mRNA expression of intestinal amino acid and lipid transporter genes, thereby improving crude protein digestibility and positively affecting laying performance and egg quality in hens.

Komagataella phaffii as a Platform for Heterologous Expression of Enzymes Used for Industry

In the 1980s, Escherichia coli was the preferred host for heterologous protein expression owing to its capacity for rapid growth in complex media; well-studied genetics; rapid and direct transformation with foreign DNA; and easily scalable fermentation. Despite the relative ease of use of E. coli for achieving the high expression of many recombinant proteins, for some proteins, e.g., membrane proteins or proteins of eukaryotic origin, this approach can be rather ineffective. Another microorganism long-used and popular as an expression system is baker's yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In spite of a number of obvious advantages of these yeasts as host cells, there are some limitations on their use as expression systems, for example, inefficient secretion, misfolding, hyperglycosylation, and aberrant proteolytic processing of proteins. Over the past decade, nontraditional yeast species have been adapted to the role of alternative hosts for the production of recombinant proteins, e.g., Komagataella phaffii, Yarrowia lipolytica, and Schizosaccharomyces pombe. These yeast species' several physiological characteristics (that are different from those of S. cerevisiae), such as faster growth on cheap carbon sources and higher secretion capacity, make them practical alternative hosts for biotechnological purposes. Currently, the K. phaffii-based expression system is one of the most popular for the production of heterologous proteins. Along with the low secretion of endogenous proteins, K. phaffii efficiently produces and secretes heterologous proteins in high yields, thereby reducing the cost of purifying the latter. This review will discuss practical approaches and technological solutions for the efficient expression of recombinant proteins in K. phaffii, mainly based on the example of enzymes used for the feed industry.

Effects of different supplemental levels of protease DE200 on the production performance, egg quality, and cecum microflora of laying hens

This study aimed to investigate the effects of different levels of the protease DE200 on the performance, egg quality, organ index, and cecum microflora of Hy-line W36 laying hens. In this experiment, a total of 180 laying hens aged 300 d were randomly divided into three treatment groups and fed diets containing 0, 100, or 200 g/t DE200. The experimental period was 8 wk, including 2 wk of prefeeding and 6 wk of the formal experiment. Regular feeding was performed thrice a day and eggs were collected twice daily, and the feed intake and the egg quality were recorded. The results showed that in terms of production performance, dietary supplementation with different levels of DE200 significantly increased egg production (EP; P < 0.05) and significantly decreased the feed conversion ratio (FCR; P < 0.05) and average daily feed intake (ADFI; P < 0.05) without affecting egg weight (EW). In addition, the addition of DE200 significantly reduced the egg breakage rate (P < 0.05) and tended to increase the Haugh unit and decrease the water content of the yolk (P > 0.05). In the cecal microflora, the addition of DE200 increased the proportions of Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes at the phylum level while reducing the proportion of Fusobacteria. Furthermore, at the genus level, the addition of DE200 increased the proportions of Bacteroides and Faecalibacterium and reduced the proportion of Megamonas. This study suggested that the protease DE200 can be used as a feed supplement to improve the production performance of laying hens.

Effects of protease enzyme supplementation and varying levels of amino acid inclusion on productive performance, egg quality, and amino acid digestibility in laying hens from 30 to 50 weeks of age

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of protease supplementation and reduced digestible amino acid (dAA)/ crude protein (CP) level on productive performance, AA digestibility, and egg quality parameters in Hy-Line W-36 laying hen from 30 to 50 wk of age. A total of 768 hens (12 replicates of 8 hens per treatment) were equally and randomly allocated into 8 experimental diets in a 4 × 2 factorial arrangement of dAA/CP level (100, 95, 90, and 85% of breeder recommendation) and protease (exclusion or inclusion). Protease was added at 60 g/metric ton of feed in the inclusion group. Hens were housed in raised-wire cages with a stocking density of 870 cm²/bird. The adequate (100%) diet was based on corn and soybean meal and formulated based on the digestible (d) Lys and dAAs (dMet, dThr, dTrp, dTSAA, dIle, and dVal) to meet 100% of the current management guide recommendation. Variations in dAA/CP (95, 90, and 85% diets) were accomplished by reducing the 100% dAA by 5, 10, and 15%, respectively. All diets were supplemented with phytase at 500 phytase units (FTU)/kg. Data were analyzed using PROC GLM of SAS 9.4. There was a main effect of dAA/CP level on 85% diet where it had a lower mean hen-day egg production (HDEP, P < 0.01), egg mass (EM, P < 0.01), and higher feed conversion ratio (FCR, P < 0.001). Higher egg weight (P < 0.01) was observed in 95 and 100% dAA/CP level diets. However, Haugh unit (P < 0.01) and albumen height (P < 0.01) were higher in 85 and 90% diets. The inclusion of protease reduced the feed consumption (P = 0.0247), FCR for dozens of eggs (P = 0.0049) from 30 to 49 wk of age without affecting the HDEP or EM. Protease supplementation and dAA/CP level had an effect on the apparent ileal digestibility (AID) of CP (P = 0.019), Lys (P < 0.01), Thr (P < 0.01), Trp (P = 0.017), and Val (P < 0.01). Addition of protease significantly increased egg income (P = 0.033) and return on investment (P = 0.00223) from 30 to 37 wk of age. At 38 to 50 wk of age, dAA/CP level had a significant effect on egg income (P < 0.001), feed cost (P < 0.001), and return on investment (P < 0.001). This experiment indicates that the inclusion of protease in 90 and 95% lower dAA/CP diets could help improve the digestibility of CP, and key amino acids and maintain productive performance of corn and soybean meal-based diets in Hy-Line W-36 laying hen from 30 to 50 wk of age.

Longitudinal Study of the Effects of Flammulina velutipes Stipe Wastes on the Cecal Microbiota of Laying Hens

Because antibiotics have been phased out of use in poultry feed, measures to improve intestinal health have been sought. Dietary fiber may be beneficial to intestinal health by modulating gut microbial composition, but the exact changes it induces remain unclear. In this study, we evaluated the effect of Flammulina velutipes stipe wastes (FVW) on the cecal microbiotas of laying chickens at ages spanning birth to 490 days. Using clonal sequencing and 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing, we showed that FVW improved the microbial diversity when they under fluctuated. The evolvement of the microbiota enhanced the physiological development of laying hens. Supplementation of FVW enriched the relative abundance of Sutterella, Ruminiclostridium, Synergistes, Anaerostipes, and Rikenellaceae, strengthened the positive connection between Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes, and increased the concentration of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in early life. FVW maintains gut microbiota homeostasis by regulating Th1, Th2, and Th17 balance and secretory IgA (S-IgA) level. In conclusion, we showed that FVW induces microbial changes that are potentially beneficial for intestinal immunity. IMPORTANCE Dietary fiber is popularly used in poultry farming to improve host health and metabolism. Microbial composition is known to be influenced by dietary fiber use, although the exact FVW-induced changes remain unclear. This study provided a first comparison of the effects of FVW and the most commonly used antibiotic growth promoter (flavomycin) on the cecal microbiotas of laying hens from birth to 490 days of age. We found that supplementation with FVW altered cecal microbial composition, thereby affecting the correlation network between members of the microbiota, and subsequently affecting the intestinal immune homeostasis.