Factor Effecting Starch digestibility in

broiler Chicken

Zeeshan Abbas
M.Sc.(Hons.) Animal Nutrition
Institute of Animal and Dairy Sciences
1
Introduction
Review of Literature
Conclusion
Introduction
 Starch is mainly energy source of diet comprising of 40% of feed.
(Svihus, 2011)
 Several studies showed that starch from corn almost completely
digested
(Abdollahi et al., 2013b)
 Chicken also able to increase α-amylase secreation with increasing
amount of ingested starch.
(Moran, 1985)
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 Evidence is accumulating to suggest that starch is not fully digested in

poultry and that’s there is considerable variation among cereals species and
cultivars within species.

 Therefore ileal starch digestibility is of critical relevance in practical feed

formulations.
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 Starch is a reserve carbohydrate that is present in many plants. The main
sources of starch in commercial broilers are cereal grains such as
 Wheat (~70% DM)
 Maize (~65% DM)
 Barley (~60% DM)
 The starch granules consist of semicrystalline and amorphous layers and
exist in various sizes and shapes
 Amylose and amylopectin are the main building components of layers and
both are polymers of glucose units
(Svihus et al., 2005)
 α-amylase is the major responsible enzyme for starch digestion in
birds and mammals.
 There is some α-amylase activity present in the saliva of humans and
pigs

(McDonald, 2002)
 In poultry, saliva does not contain any α-amylase and pancreatic α-
amylase is the only starch degrading enzyme
(Wiseman, 2006)
 There are several factors affecting starch
digestion in poultry.

Feed related factors Non-feed related factors

feed processing, particle size, bird’s genetics
starch/granule characteristics in the feed bird’s age
antinutritional factors (ANFs)
presence of fibers
 Looking at starch digestion as a simple hydrolysis reaction

 Another factor would be time required for complete hydrolysis

 Too short exposure time to α-amylase may be one of the reasons for
suboptimal starch digestion

(Svihus, 2011b)
 Starch structure
 Two distinct populations of starch exist.
 Amylopectin consists of α-1–4 glucose chains with frequent branches
due to α-1–6 bonds,
 whereas amylose is characterized by very few branches.
 amylose has a molecular weight of around 100 kDa, amylopectin has
a much higher molecular weight in the order of 104 to 106 kDa
(Buléon et al., 1998).
 Most starches contain between 200 to 250 g of amylose/kg

 Some waxy starches contain very little amylose content

 Amylomaize, may contain 650 to 700 g of amylose/kg

(Parker and Ring, 2001)

 Starch granule architecture
 starch granule architecture will vary among cereal sources both in
regard to
 size and shape of the granules
 molecular architecture of the granule
 Wheat, rye, and barley have lenticular large (10–40 μm) and spherical
small (2–10 μm) granules in a bimodal distribution,
 maize and sorghum have spherical/polyhedral granules (2–30 μm)
with a unimodal distribution
 Feed intake level and particle size
 clearly illustrated declining total tract starch digestibility for
increasing feed consumption of broiler chickens receiving wheat
based diet
 High levels of undigested starch in the excreta was where they
provided finely ground wheat diet to broiler chickens immediately
after food-deprivation, again relating reduced starch digestibility to
feed overload and consequently fast transit of feed through the
digestive tract. (Péron et al., 2005)
 Improved starch digestibility was observed when broilers were fed
unground cereals
(Hetland et al., 2002; Svihus et al.,
 Pelleting effect
 No significant improvements in starch digestibility for broiler chickens
as a consequence of pelleting, although a complete gelatinization due
to conditioning improved starch digestibility of wheat diets exhibiting
low digestibility.
(Zimonja and Svihus, 2009)
 Stated that the degree of crystallinity is inversely related to the rate of
starch digestion,
(Björck et al., 2000)
 Slow digestibility of native starch is related to the ordered structure of
alternating crystalline and amorphous layers in the starch granule.
(Zhang et al., 2006a,b)
Starch digestibility
Table 1. Ileal starch digestibility of 24- and 38-d-old broilers

Ground Whole Ground Whole P-

wheat wheat barley barley value
Starch digestibility, 24 d 0.97 0.99 0.97 0.96 0.1076
Starch digestibility, 38 d 0.94 0.98 0.92 0.97 0.0001

(Hetland, 2002)
Table 2. Starch digestibility in broilers given ground or whole wheat diets

Ground wheat Whole wheat P-Value

Faecal starch 0.96 0.99 0.006
digestibility, d 18 to 20
Starch digestibility, 0.93 0.99 0.002
posterior ileum
Starch digestibility, 0.93 0.98 0.048
median ileum
Starch digestibility, 0.91 0.92 NS
anterior ileum

(Sivihus, 2004)
Effect of wheat market class on starch digestibility in
small intestine in broiler chickens (d 21).

(Karunaratne et al., 2018)

In vitro starch digestion coefficients (DC) of
experimental diets with different starch sources
after several incubation times 1
Conclusion
Starch digestibility improve by
 Particle size of ingredient
 Conditioning
 Starch type
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