Energy utilization and growth performance of chickens fed novel wheat inbred lines selected for different pentosan levels with and without xylanase supplementation

Different F5 recombinant inbred lines
from the cross Yumai 34 × Ukrainka were grown in
replicated trials on a single site in one harvest year at
Rothamsted Research. A total of 10 samples from those
lines were harvested and used in a broiler experiment.
Twenty nutritionally complete meal-form diets that had
630 g/kg of wheat with different amounts of pentosan,
with and without exogenous xylanase supplementation,
were used to compare broiler growth performance and
determine apparent metabolizable energy corrected for
N retention (AMEn). We examined the relationship between the nutritive value of the wheat samples and their
chemical compositions and results of quality tests. The
amounts of total and water soluble pentosans in wheat
samples ranged from 36.7 to 48.0 g/kg DM, and 6.7 to
11.6 g/kg DM, respectively. The mean crude oil and
protein contents of the wheat samples were 10.5 and
143.9 g/kg DM, respectively. The average determined
value for the kinematic viscosity was 0.0018 mPa.s, and
2.1 mPa.s for the dynamic viscosity. The AMEn of the
wheat-based diets had a maximum range of 0.47 MJ/kg
DM within the ten wheat samples that were tested. Xylanase supplementation improved (P < 0.05) dietary
AMEn, dry matter, and fat digestibility coefficients.
There was a positive (P < 0.05) relationship between in
vitro kinematic viscosity of the wheat samples and the
total pentosan content. There was a negative relationship between the total pentosan content in the wheat
and broiler growth performance. An increase by 10 g of
pentosan per kg of wheat reduced (P < 0.001) daily feed
intake and weight gain by 2.9 g and 3.5 g, respectively.
The study shows that the feeding quality of wheat samples can be predicted by their total pentosan content.
Supplementary xylanase improved energy and nutrient
availability of all wheat samples that was independent
of differences in pentosan content.