Proteases in the diet of broilers

Abstract

The inclusion of additives in broiler feed has been a strategy to reduce production costs and the central point of research in poultry farming since this is equivalent to 70% of the total cost of production. The objective of this review is to present an update on the benefits of the use of added proteases in the broiler diet and how they are an opportunity to improve productive variables such as bird performance, nutrient digestibility of feed, improve intestinal hismorphometric parameters. In addition, it has also been observed that its inclusion can increase the apparent metabolizable energy and decreased in the protein that reaches the colon, which could generate intestinal inflammatory syndromes and lead to diarrhea as well as serve as a substrate for the growth of pathogenic bacteria. Some economic feasibility studies have shown that when low-protein diets are managed with the addition of protease, they can produce better profitability than fully balanced commercial diets, so new research on these should be carried out.