Effect of dietary phytate and phytase on metabolic change of blood and intestinal mucosa in chickens

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of dietary phytate and phytase on the metabolic parameters of lipid, protein, enzyme, electrolyte in the blood or intestinal mucosa of broiler chickens. Diets containing phytate phosphorus (0.22% or 0.44%) with phytase supplementation (0, 500 or 1000 U/kg) were administrated to 504 Cobb chicks for 4 weeks. Results showed that the serum concentrations of total cholesterol (T‐CHO), albumin, albumin/globulin, total superoxide dismutase (T‐SOD), total antioxidant capacity (T‐AOC) and glutamic pyruvic transaminase (GPT) were decreased by 9–41% in high phytate diets (p < 0.05) and the concentrations of blood P, K, Fe, Cu, Zn and Mg were decreased by 4–14% for birds fed high phytate diets (p < 0.05), whereas inclusion of phytase compensated these adverse influences. In the duodenum, phytate decreased the level of T‐AOC by 13% (p < 0.05), whereas phytase increased the levels of T‐SOD, T‐AOC and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) by 9–16% (p < 0.05). Also, in the jejunum, diets with high phytate showed lower activity of T‐SOD, T‐AOC and glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT) (p < 0.05), and phytase increased T‐SOD, T‐AOC and ALP (p < 0.05). However, phytase decreased transaminase activity in the low phytate basal diets (p < 0.05). This study suggests that dietary phytate can adversely interfere with the metabolisms of lipid and protein, as well as the antioxidation of blood and intestinal cells, while phytase supplementation may compensate these effects for broiler chickens.