Czech J. Anim. Sci., 2025, 70(4):147-159 | DOI: 10.17221/18/2025-CJAS

Effects of low-protein diet supplemented with exogenous protease on growth performance and intestinal health of broiler chickensOriginal Paper

Xin Hao1, Guifeng Zhang2, Yilin Ge3, Jie Wang4, Weiren Yang4, Lijie Yang4
1 College of Food Science and Engineering, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an, Shandong, P.R. China
2 Shandong Lonct Enzymes Co., Ltd., Shandong, Lin’yi, P.R. China
3 SDU-ANU Joint Science College, Shandong University, Wei’ hai, Shandong, P.R. China
4 Key Laboratory of Efficient Utilisation of Non-Grain Feed Resources (Co-Construction by Ministry and Province), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs; Department of Animal Science and Technology, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an, P.R. China

This experiment was conducted to study the effects of low-protein diet supplemented with exogenous protease on performance and intestinal health of broilers. A total of 560 one-day-old male Arbor Acres broiler chickens were randomly divided into 5 treatments with 8 replicates (12 birds per replicate) in a completely randomised design. The treatments were as follows: (1) maize-soybean meal basal diet (CON); (2) negative control with crude protein being 1% lower than in CON (NCON); (3) NCON + 12 000 U/kg coated alkaline protease (NCAP); (4) NCON + 16 000 U/kg alkaline protease (NAP); (5) NCON + 16 000 U/kg keratinase (NKA). The remaining 80 birds (10 replicates, 8 birds per replicate) were randomly assigned to endogenous indicator measurements. The results indicated that the NCON diet resulted in a higher feed-to-gain ratio and reduced protein digestibility, ileal amino acid digestibility, and intestinal morphological parameters (P < 0.05). Supplementation of different exogenous proteases significantly improved the apparent and true ileal digestibility of specific amino acids, enhanced jejunal chymotrypsin activity, and promoted intestinal morphological development, including increased villus height and villus height-to-crypt depth ratio (P < 0.05). Our findings suggested that the addition of exogenous protease improved the intestinal morphology of broilers.

Keywords: Arbor Acres chickens; feed efficiency; intestinal morphology; low-protein diet; nutrient digestibility; protease supplementation

Received: February 10, 2025; Accepted: March 21, 2025; Prepublished online: April 29, 2025; Published: April 30, 2025  Show citation

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Hao X, Zhang G, Ge Y, Wang J, Yang W, Yang L. Effects of low-protein diet supplemented with exogenous protease on growth performance and intestinal health of broiler chickens. Czech J. Anim. Sci. 2025;70(4):147-159. doi: 10.17221/18/2025-CJAS.
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