Effects of Methionine sources and NSP enzymes on broiler gut microflora

Y. Mercier, M. Francesh, I. Badiola, A. Pérez De Rozas, P.-A. Geraert - August 2007

Management of gut microflora in poultry gains strong interest in Europe due to antibiotic growth promoter withdrawal. Methionine hydroxy-analogue, which can be assimilated to an organic acid, and NSP enzymes, through the changes in undigested fractions reaching the large intestine, can both impact gut microflora composition. The present experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary methionine source (DL-methionine or HMTBA) and the use of NSP enzymes (from Penicillium funiculosum) on intestinal microflora composition (by RFLP of 16S rRNA methods) in broiler chickens. In overall experiment no significant differences between methionine sources were observed for any of the performance parameters evaluated. NSP enzyme addition significantly improved feed to gain ratio by 3.2 % (P≤ 0.01). Although differences did not reach statistical significance (P ≤ 0.07), birds fed DL-methionine presented a slightly higher biodiversity degree of their intestinal microflora, compared with birds fed HMTBA and results showed a strong effect of the block location on this parameter (P ≤ 0.05). NSP enzyme supplementation also tended to increase the biodiversity degree. There were differences between treatments in the frequency of detection of Campylobacter and Ruminococcus bacterial genus, being significantly reduced in birds fed HMTBA compared to DL-methionine.