Effects of Addition of Exogenous Fibrolytic Enzymes on Digestibility and Milk and Meat Production – A Systematic Review

Exogenous fibrolytic enzymes (EFE) added to the ruminant diet can increase fiber digestibility and production efficiency. A systematic review was conducted to understand the interactions between EFE and diet on digestibility and animal performance. The database included variables from 384 experiments with EFE and 264 controls from 85 papers published since 2000 (classification criteria: 1) type of study (in vitro, in situ, in vivo), 2) type of ruminants (sheep, buffaloes, goats, beef and dairy cattle), 3) primary EFE activity (cellulases (Cel) or xylanases (Xyl)), 4) forage proportion (FP), 5) type of plant (TP: legumes or grasses), 6) number of ingredients in diets, and 7) application time (AT)). In over 52.85% of cases, EFE improved the degradability of dry matter (DMD), neutral and acid detergent fiber (NDFD and ADFD), in vitro gas production (GP), volatile fatty acids (VFA), the acetate: propionate ratio (A:P ratio), protein and fat milk, milk yield and average daily gain (ADG) (by 7.78–21.85%). Cel improved organic matter degradability (OMD), GP, VFA, milk yield, and milk protein and fat content. EFE in FP≥40% diets enhanced the ADG, and in grassbased diets increased the dry matter intake (DMI). The AT of EFE affected the DMD, NDFD, and ADFD. Significant correlations were found between the improvements of NDFD or ADFD with DMD (r>0.59), milk yield (r=0.64), and ADG (r=0.59). In conclusion, many factors interact with EFE supplementation effects, but EFE consistently enhanced the DMD, NDFD, and ADFD of ruminant diets, which are related to improvements in productive performance.