Journal of animal scienceMar 11, 2024

Effects of a new enzyme feed additive on growth, nutrient use, and gut bacteria in young pigs fed corn-wheat or wheat-barley diets

Updated Feb 3, 2026

Abstract

Dietary addition of carbohydrases-protease enzyme complex (CPEC) improved the body weight of pigs at days 28 and 42.

CPEC supplementation enhanced the average daily gain and gain-to-feed ratio of pigs over the entire 42-day period.
Interactions between diet type and CPEC supplementation affected digestibility outcomes, particularly for dry matter, gross energy, and neutral detergent fiber at day 42.
CPEC improved the of dry matter, gross energy, and neutral detergent fiber in high fiber diets.
of the fecal microbiome increased with CPEC supplementation in high fiber diets, indicating changes in microbial community structure.
Dietary fiber composition had a more significant impact on fecal microbial communities than CPEC administration.

Simplified

One-hundred-and-ninety-two weanling pigs (6.7 kg body weight) were used to evaluate the impact of a carbohydrases-protease enzyme complex (CPEC) on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, and gut microbiome. Pigs were assigned to one of the four dietary treatments for 42 d according to a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of diet type (low fiber [LF] or high fiber [HF]) and CPEC supplementation (0 or 170 mg/kg diet). The LF diet was prepared as corn-wheat-based diet while the HF diet was wheat-barley-based and contained wheat middlings and canola meal. Each dietary treatment consisted of 12 replicate pens (six replicates per gender) and four pigs per replicate pen. Over the 42-d period, there was no interaction between diet type and CPEC supplementation on growth performance indices of pigs. Dietary addition of CPEC improved (P < 0.05) the body weight of pigs at days 28 and 42 and the gain-to-feed ratio of pigs from days 0 to 14. During the entire experimental period, dietary CPEC supplementation improved (P < 0.05) the average daily gain and gain-to-feed ratio of pigs. There were interactions between diet type and CPEC supplementation on (ATTD) of dry matter (DM; P < 0.01), gross energy (GE; P < 0.01), and neutral detergent fiber (NDF; P < 0.05) at d 42. Dietary CPEC addition improved (P < 0.05) ATTD of DM, GE, and NDF in the HF diets. At day 43, dietary CPEC addition resulted in improved (P < 0.05) apparent ileal digestibility (AID) of NDF and interactions (P < 0.05) between diet type and CPEC supplementation on AID of DM and crude fiber. indices including phylogenetic diversity and observed amplicon sequence variants of fecal microbiome increased (P < 0.05) by the addition of CPEC to the HF diets on day 42. An interaction (P < 0.05) between diet type and CPEC addition on Bray-Curtis dissimilarity index and Unweighted UniFrac distances was observed on day 42. In conclusion, CPEC improved weanling pig performance and feed efficiency, especially in wheat-barley diets, while dietary fiber composition had a more significant impact on fecal microbial communities than CPEC administration. The results of this study underscores carbohydrase's potential to boost pig performance without major microbiome changes.

Key numbers

19.7%

Increase in Average Daily Gain (ADG)

Compared to control in high fiber diets.

22.8%

Increase in Apparent Ileal Digestibility (AID) of NDF

At day 43 postweaning with supplementation.

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Abstract

Key numbers

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