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Abstract
1. Two nutritional experiments with young chicks and one in vitro trial were carried out to determine the effect of water‐soaking and enzyme supplementation on the nutritive value of rye grain, and to establish the mode by which the effects were brought about.
2. In experiment 1, enzyme treatment of rye (1–0 g Tv cellulase/kg rye) improved weight gains by 15% (P<0–05) and food:gain ratios by 14% (P<0–05) but did not affect food consumption (P>0–05). Corresponding improvements produced by water‐soaking were 7 (P>0–05), 16 (P<0–05) and 10% (F<0–05). In the second experiment, similar trends occurred but improvements were less pronounced.
3. The second experiment also demonstrated that both enzyme supplementation and water‐soaking reduced the viscosity of both the diet and excreta, and increased the retention of fat.
4. Water‐soaking and fungal enzyme treatment caused an increase in extractable water‐soluble pentosans which were of sufficient molecular mass (not monomers or oligomers) to be almost entirely precipitated by 80% ethanol. Sufficient hydrolysis of these polysaccharides had occurred by both enzyme and soaking treatments, but not by normal digestion by chickens, to lower viscosity. The results suggest that the viscosity of rye can be reduced slowly by endogenous enzymes present in rye (water‐soaking), rapidly by a fungal enzyme preparation and in the lower sections of the gastrointestinal tract by microbial enzymes.
5. Both water‐soaking and enzyme treatment greatly improved the nutritive value of rye by bringing about a reduction in the viscosities of the water‐soluble and highly viscous pentosans. The results also suggest that the production of monomers or oligomers was not necessary for the lowering of viscosity observed with the two treatments.
