DSM collaborates with Novozymes A/S (previously known as Novo Nordisk),
Denmark.
Together, these two world leaders, DSM Nutritional Products, and Novozymes,
bring quality, innovation and reliability into the area of feed enzymes.
Novozymes will provide its know-how on research, product development and
production, whilst DSM Nutritional Products brings its experience in
application development, marketing and sales as well as its international
presence in the feed industry. The alliance means leadership in the global
enzyme market and a full complement of feed enzyme products. And of course,
with the combination of superior nutritional and biochemical knowledge, this
range has the best potential to expand in the future, bringing you new and
fresh applications.
DSM Nutritional Products provides a full complement of enzyme products for
both pig and poultry diets under the brand names RONOZYME® and ROXAZYME®.
What are enzymes?
Enzymes are naturally occurring proteins that act as biological catalysts. The
complex biochemical reactions that form the metabolism of living organisms are
regulated by thousands of enzymes, each promoting a specific reaction that
takes place countless times every day. In the mid-1980s, the addition of
enzymes to animal feeds began in regions where the supply of highly digestible
ingredients, such as maize (corn), was limited. The first products were too
expensive to be used widely, but this has since changed. As a result of
intensive research and development efforts, enzyme products are now commonly
used in animal feeds. Feed enzymes increase the digestibility of nutrients,
leading to improved animal nutrition, and thus can contribute to feeding an
ever-growing human population. At the same time, they can play a role in
minimizing the environmental impact of increased animal production.
The mode of action of enzymes can be described by the "lock and key"
principle. Imagine a substrate (the molecule on which an enzyme acts) as a
kind of lock, and an enzyme as the only key which will open it. Put the two
together and a rapid reaction takes place which breaks apart the substrate
into two or more smaller parts. The enzyme key is then removed intact to play
its role in another reaction. Unfortunately, there is not always the right
enzyme key for a particular substrate lock.
Enzymes for reducing the phosphorus burden on the environment
Apart from contributing to improving nutritive value, feed enzymes can also
have a positive impact on the environment by allowing better use of natural
resources and reducing pollution by nutrients.
In areas with intensive livestock production, the phosphorus output is often
very high. This can lead to environmental problems such as eutrophication.
This is the process by which a body of water becomes, either naturally or by
pollution, rich in dissolved nutrients (such as phosphates), causing algae
blooms and deficiencies in oxygen.
Most (50-80%) of the phosphorus contained in feedstuffs of plant origin exists
as the storage form phytate, or phytic acid, and is indigestible for
non-ruminant animals such as poultry and pigs. They cannot digest the
phosphorus contained within these complex phytate structures, since they lack
the enzyme to break down the phytate and free the phosphorus. The phytase
enzyme is essential for the release of phytate-bound phosphorus. Therefore,
sufficient phytase needs to be added to the feed.
Phytate also forms complexes with proteins, digestive enzymes and minerals,
and as such is considered to be an anti-nutritional factor. Phytase frees the
phosphorus contained in cereals and oilseeds, and by breaking down the phytate
structure also achieves the release of other minerals such as calcium and
magnesium, as well as proteins and amino acids, which have become bound to the
phytate. Thus, by releasing bound phosphorus in feed ingredients of vegetable
origin, phytase makes more phosphorus available for bone growth, and reduces
the amount excreted into the environment. Use of the enzyme also has the added
benefit of helping to conserve natural resources by eliminating the need to
supplement feeds with sources of digestible inorganic phosphorus.
Our latest phytase product, RONOZYME® P, is of consistently high quality with
exceptional flowability and processing stability, courtesy of the unique
patented CT (coated thermostable) granulate formulation. There are
significant differences in stability through feed processing between the
various granulate enzyme preparations available on the market. Our CT product
forms have been designed specifically to protect the enzyme during
hydrothermal feed processing, and subsequently degrade rapidly to release the
enzyme in the digestive tract.
Enzymes for breaking down carbohydrates (NSP Enzymes)
Cereals such as wheat, rye and barley, for example, contain long, complex
carbohydrate molecules known as non-starch polysaccharides (NSPs), for which
animals such as pigs and poultry do not produce the necessary digestive
enzymes. The major NSPs in wheat are called arabinoxylans, and those in barley
are beta-glucans. It is now well recognized that these components are
anti-nutritional in behaviour. Not only do they increase the viscosity of
digesta, which means that the animal’s own enzymes have a harder time locking
onto nutrients and the absorption of these nutrients is reduced, but they also
encapsulate nutrients, thus making them unavailable to the animal. The
addition of NSP enzymes to animal diets allows the breakdown of these
anti-nutritional factors and thus faster and more complete digestion of the
feed, leading to improved nutritive value.
Feed enzymes are also able to upgrade sources of vegetable protein (such as
soybeans, rapeseed, sunflower seed and legumes) in both pig and poultry diets.
The benefits of NSP enzymes include:
• Reduction of feed costs by providing flexibility in feed formulation
• Improvement of feed efficiency in pigs and poultry
• Improvement of uniformity
• Reduction of sticky droppings (lower risk of dirty eggs, hock burns and
breast blisters) and
improvement of litter quality in poultry
• An increase in the dietary content of metabolizable energy
And of course all our enzyme products are available as liquids and
free-flowing granulates to suit all feed production systems, allowing maximum
flexibility.
The use of enzymes as feed additives is restricted in most countries by local
regulatory authorities. Applications may therefore vary from country to
country.
