Effect of enzyme supplements on macronutrient digestibility by healthy adult dogs

Abstract

Some enzyme supplement products claim benefits for healthy dogs to compensate for alleged suboptimal production of endogenous enzymes and the loss of enzymes in commercial pet foods secondary to processing. The objective of the current study was to determine macronutrient and energy digestibility by healthy adult dogs fed a commercial maintenance diet with or without supplementation with plant- and animal-origin enzyme products at the dosage recommended by their respective manufacturers. A group of fourteen healthy neutered adult Beagle dogs (average age 8 years) was divided into two equal groups and fed the basal diet alone and then with either the plant- or animal-origin enzyme supplement in three consecutive 10-d periods; the treatment groups received the opposite enzyme supplement in the third period. Digestibility in each period was performed by the total faecal collection method. Serum trypsin-like immunoreactivity (TLI) was measured at the end of each trial. Data were analysed by repeated measures and the α level of significance was set at 0·05. There were no differences in energy and nutrient digestibility between enzyme treatments. When comparing basal with enzyme supplementation, fat digestibility was higher for the basal diet compared with the animal-origin enzyme treatment, which could be a period effect and was not biologically significant (94·7 v. 93·5 %). Serum TLI was not affected by supplementation with either enzyme product. Exogenous enzyme supplementation did not significantly increase digestibility of a typical commercial dry diet in healthy adult dogs and routine use of such products is not recommended.

Safety and efficacy of a feed additive consisting of pancreatin from porcine pancreas (Pan‐zoot) for dogs (Almapharm GmbH + Co KG)

“…In a study conducted with healthy dogs, Villaverde et al ( 2017 ) concluded that the supplementation of a maintenance dry diet with pancreas gland extract 38 did not result in an improvement on the digestibility of protein, fat or energy in adult healthy dogs.…”

“…The literature results obtained in dogs support the efficacy of feeding pancreatic extracts/tissues to dogs suffering from exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. The study by Villaverde et al ( 2017 ) would cast some doubts on the efficacy of the supplementation of pancreas extract in healthy animals.…”

Exogenous Enzymes as Zootechnical Additives in Animal Feed: A Review

“…The most widely used are amylase, protease and lipase from the porcine pancreas. Moreover, some vets recommend the use of plant and animal enzyme supplements for all pets, including those without EPI The possible benefits that are expected range from an increase in the digestibility of nutrients to the support of the immune system; however, they have not been proven thus far [68].…”

Effects of “fresh mechanically deboned meat” inclusion on nutritional value, palatability, shelf-life microbiological risk and digestibility in dry dog food

“…Apparent digestibility is expressed as g/kg. The total tract apparent digestibility coefficients of DM were calculated for each diet according to Villaverde et al [35] using the formula:…”