Xylo-oligosaccharides display a prebiotic activity when used to supplement wheat or corn-based diets for broilers

Abstract

It is now well established that exogenous β-1,4-xylanases improve the nutritive value of wheat-based diets for poultry. Among other factors, the mechanism of action of exogenous enzymes may involve a microbial route resulting from the generation of prebiotic xylo-oligosaccharides (XOS) in the birds' gastro-intestinal (GI) tract. In a series of three experiments, the effect of XOS on the performance of broilers fed wheat or corn-based diets was investigated. In experiment 1, birds receiving diets supplemented with XOS displayed an increased weight gain (P = 0.08). The capacity of XOS to improve the performance of animals during a longer trial (42 d) was investigated (Experiment 2). The data revealed that diet supplementation with XOS, tested at two incorporation rates (0.1 and 1 g/kg), or with an exogenous β-1,4-xylanase resulted in an increased nutritive value of the wheat-based diet. An improvement in animal performance was accompanied by a shift in the microbial populations colonizing the upper portions of the GI tract. XOS were also able to improve the performance of broilers fed a corn-based diet, although the effects were not apparent at incorporation rates of 10 g/kg. Together these studies suggest that in some cases the capacity of β-1,4-xylanases to improve the nutritive value of wheat-based diets is more related to their ability to produce prebiotic XOS than to their ability to degrade arabinoxylans. The extremely low quantities of XOS used in this study also challenge the depiction of a prebiotic being a quantitatively fermented substrate. These data also bring into question the validity of the "cell wall" mechanism, as XOS elicited an effect with clearly no action on endosperm cell wall integrity and yet the performance effects noted were equivalent or superior to the added enzymes.

The similarity of the effect of carbohydrase or prebiotic supplementation in broilers aged 21 days, fed mixed cereal diets and challenged with coccidiosis infection

“…Recent publications have suggested an alternative mechanism of action for XOS whether the prebiotic is supplemented in the diet or results from NSP hydrolysis. It has been suggested that XOS encourages the bacteria in the intestine to digest xylan, found in the feed, more efficiently and consequently increases nutrient digestion overall contributing to the improvements in animal performance [28]. If the microflora is encouraged to digest xylan more efficiently, this would explain the reduction in insoluble xylose and arabinose concentration in the ileum of broilers following the addition of carbohydrases or XOS to the diet.…”

Process development for the production of prebiotic fructo-oligosaccharides by penicillium citreonigrum

“…FOS mixture produced by P. citreonigrum URM 4459 were analysed according to Nobre et al (2018c) and Ribeiro et al (2018). A mixture of commercial FOS Actilight ® (Beghin-Meiji Industries, France) was used as standard.…”

“…The injector and detector temperatures were 300 and 400°C, respectively. The flow rate of the carrier gas (H 2 ) was set at 1.7 mL/min (Ribeiro et al, 2018).…”

Arabinoxylan-oligosaccharides kick-start arabinoxylan digestion in the aging broiler

“…(2019) , relatively low amounts of AXOS added to broiler diets can act as substrate for saccharolytic microbiota, which are known to obtain their energy from such carbohydrates, thereby resulting in the production of SCFA. However, the size of performance responses observed when AXOS was added in the diets could not be solely explained by the low amount of energy yielded from the SCFA produced upon AXOS fermentation ( Józefiak et al., 2004 , Ribeiro et al., 2018 ). In addition, it is doubtful whether the low amounts of AXOS added in the diets would generate a meaningful amount of SCFA to be able to stimulate associated microbiota-modulated effects such as gut hormone responses.…”

“…The beneficial effects of these AXOS on performance characteristics and the overall health status of broilers are already well documented and have been intensively investigated over the past 15 years. AXOS are well-known for their prebiotic potential across species ( Courtin et al., 2008b , Geraylou et al., 2012 , Yacoubi et al., 2017 , Ribeiro et al., 2018 ). They will selectively stimulate the growth of the health-related microbial species, for example, Bifidobacteria , and increase the short-chain fatty acid ( SCFA ) production in the hindgut.…”