Increased dietary sodium chloride concentrations reduce endogenous amino acid flow and influence the physiological response to the ingestion of phytic acid by broiler chickens

Abstract

1. A total of 240 Ross 308 broilers were used to investigate the effect of sodium (1·5 or 2·5 g/kg), phytate-P (0 or 3·2 g/kg), and phytase (0 or 1000 FTU/kg; 2x2x2 factorial) on endogenous amino acid flow using the enzyme-hydrolysed casein method.

2. The ingestion of phytate increased endogenous amino acid flow (∼30%) compared with the phytate-free control diets. Phytase reduced endogenous amino acid flow only when fed in concert with phytate, resulting in a significant phytate x phytase interaction.

3. Increasing dietary sodium concentration from 1·5 to 2·5 g/kg reduced endogenous amino acid flow by around 10%. This reduction of endogenous flow was particularly evident in diets which contained phytate, resulting in a significant sodium x phytate interaction for several amino acids, including Thr and Ser. Further, high sodium concentrations muted the effect of phytase resulting in a significant sodium x phytase interaction for some amino acids.

4. The concentration of Asp, Thr, Ser and some other amino acids was increased in the endogenous protein in response to the ingestion of phytate. Both sodium and phytase essentially restored the composition of endogenous protein to that of the phytate-free control. Further, as both sodium and phytase had similar effects there were significant interactions between sodium and phytase for most amino acids, such that one was only effective in the absence of the other.

5. These data confirm previous reports that phytate is a nutritional aggressor, causing quantitative and qualitative changes in endogenous protein flow. However, this is the first report which has shown that dietary sodium concentrations play a role in the severity of this antinutritional effect and consequently may blunt the efficacy of exogenous phytase. The mechanism is obscure, though it has been previously demonstrated that sodium can disrupt phytate:protein complexes, thus mitigating one of the mechanisms by which phytate exerts its antinutritional effect.