Chicken gut health is crucial in antibiotics-free period. Some alternatives such as probiotics, postbiotics, prebiotics, bile acids, antimicrobial peptides, essential oils, and vaccinations have been gradually accepted in poultry production.
Recently, a new alternative feed enzyme, glucose oxidase (GOD), has drawn attention to poultry and swine industry.
The GOD is exogenously produced by specific fungi fermentation to oxidize β-D-Glucose into gluconic acid and hydrogen peroxide, consuming large amounts of oxygen at the same time in the chicken gut. Therefore, it can protect against oxidative stress and directly kill some pathogenic bacteria or Eimeria parasites.
Recently a thermal stable GOD is commercially available, and Table 1 clearly shows that at 85 °C, the enzyme recovery rate of this GOD maintains 92%.
Table 1. Thermostability of different GOD (3 minutes bath incubation)
In general, adding 2000 U/kg GOD to layer chicken feed increased egg production from 88% to 90% within 4 weeks of production. Egg weight increased from 60.8 to 61.4 gram/egg.
Adding 3000 u/Kg GOD to broiler chicken diets increased body weight gain by 3.44% and FCR was improved by 6 points.