Congrats to Rajesh Jha and his team in the Dept. of Human Nutrition, Food, and Animal Sciences for not one but TWO papers recognized this year!
The Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology recently announced its 2022 Best Paper Award would be bestowed on Rajesh. Earlier this year, the journal Animals awarded his lab the 2022 Best Paper Award.
Their latest paper, “Effect of supplemental xylanase and xylooligosaccharides on production performance and gut health variables of broiler chickens,” evaluated the enzyme and probiotics for their role in the broiler chicken’s growth performance and intestinal health parameters. Specifically, they examined xylanase enzyme and xylooligosaccharides prebiotics as alternatives to antibiotics. The xylanase enzyme enhances the nutrient utilization and breaks down the fibers into smaller oligosaccharides, which further act as prebiotics.
Combined, the enzyme and oligosaccharides mimic the functions of in-feed antibiotics as growth promoters and modulate gut microbiota for their beneficial roles, such as improving nutrient digestion, absorption, metabolism, and overall health and growth performance of poultry. However, not all enzymes and prebiotics work the same way. Thus, by doing this type of work, Rajesh’s team hopes to help producers and regulatory agencies using enzymes and prebiotics in poultry nutrition to develop new dietary and managerial strategies that will ultimately lead to enhanced feed utilization and improved growth performance of poultry.
“Our work comes during a time when the poultry industry is looking for alternatives to antibiotics in routine practice to promote growth and manage the gut health of chickens,” says Rajesh. “A growing understanding of the environmental and human health consequences of antibiotic overuse in livestock production has led to banning or regulating antibiotics as feed additives.”
Read more about this research at the HNFAS Animal Research Lab website.