A Multi-Protease Bio-Catalyst: More Than Just for Soybean Meal

The conversation around protease supplementation in animal nutrition is growing, especially regarding best practices. Traditionally, proteases have been used primarily to improve the feeding value of soybean meal in swine and poultry diets. This improvement is commonly attributed to the protease breaking down protein structures in soybeans, directly enhancing amino acid and nutrient digestibility, leading to greater absorption and improved performance. Additionally, data supports that exogenous protease preparations help deactivate and degrade antinutritional factors in soybean meal, such as glycinin and trypsin inhibitors, thereby mitigating negative effects associated with these soybean-origin factors and improving overall performance.

This approach generally holds true for single-component proteases—those derived from a single source organism and primarily intended to hydrolyze protein structures specific to soybean meal. However, when considering a multi-component or multi-strain protease preparation, the application of this mindset should be expanded. Multi-proteases, like the bio-catalyst discussed here, are purposely formulated to contain diverse protease activities with varying substrate affinities. In essence, this bio-catalyst is not only effective at hydrolyzing proteins in soybean meal but is also equipped to degrade proteins found in other soybean feedstuffs (e.g., extruded, expeller, and whole roasted soybeans), as well as in wheat, corn, rice bran, DDGS, feather, and meat meal.

It's also essential to recognize that multi-protease preparations, such as this bio-catalyst, are beneficial in diets containing highly digestible protein sources, like fermented soybean meal. Specialty ingredients included at levels as low as 5% may account for only 4-6% of the dietary protein in a ration. This means that the remaining 94-96% of dietary protein, sourced from ingredients such as corn, wheat, rice bran, canola meal, and poultry meal, stands to benefit significantly from bio-catalyst supplementation. The broad-spectrum nature of this bio-catalyst allows it to enhance nearly every ingredient in a diet when used at the recommended level.

Key Takeaway: This bio-catalyst isn’t limited to soybean meal—it’s an all-inclusive protease!