Rethinking the Gold Standard: How Multi-Enzyme NSPases Unlock the Potential of Corn and Soy

By: Dr. Lucas Knarr, Technical Services Scientist – Poultry HeadStart

The commercial poultry industry has changed dramatically since its inception. Advances in management practices, antibiotic use, and feed formulation and manufacturing have helped reduce production costs, respond to regulatory and economic pressures, and improve production efficiency.

Exogenous non-starch polysaccharide-degrading enzyme (NSPase) feed additives represent another major industry innovation. NSPases entered the market over four decades ago, aiding in the liberation of otherwise unavailable nutrients in many monogastric diet formulations. Today, NSPases are common in most commercial poultry formulations for a variety of reasons: inherent limitations of the avian digestive system to digest certain nutrient groups; antinutritional factors; ingredient price and quality fluctuations; and the sudden availability of ethanol, biodiesel, and food production byproducts.

The original role of NSPases centered on alleviating digesta viscosity concerns and improving the digestion of fibrous alternative grains and feedstuffs, but that view may not fully capture the nutritional opportunities remaining in corn- and soybean meal–based formulations. As we learn more about NSPase capabilities, it is becoming clear that modern formulations, even those composed of our golden standards of corn and soy, have room for improvement.

The Current Standards

Corn is the primary energy source in most poultry formulations due to its relatively large starch-rich endosperm. In addition to these easily digestible carbohydrates, corn also contains smaller fractions of protein, fats, minerals, and vitamins, and upwards of 9% non-starch polysaccharides (NSP).⁷ Soybean meal, the refined byproduct of soybean oil extraction, is mainly used as a protein source in poultry nutrition. Like corn, it provides energy-rich carbohydrates, residual fats, minerals, and vitamins. However, unlike corn, soybean meals may contain 20% or more NSPs, depending on the amount of reintroduced hulls after the oil extraction process.⁷

Together, NSPs make up 10%–15% of a typical corn or soybean meal formulation. This fraction harbors unusable energy and limits nutrient utilization via a phenomenon called the cage wall effect, in which the rich nutritional contents of cells in the outer layers of the grain are rendered indigestible by their fibrous cell walls. Because poultry intrinsically lack the enzymes required to overcome these barriers, exogenous enzymes are needed to achieve maximum digestive potential.

Reexamining the NSP Fraction

Continued research suggests there is still more to learn about the nutritional significance of the NSP fraction in modern corn- and soybean meal–based diets. Unlike other grains like wheat, barley, and oats, the NSP content of corn and soybean meal is highly branched with similar components including arabinoxylans, galactans, pectins, β-glucans, and cellulose. Ultimately, this complexity creates a unique challenge for modern NSPases.

To address this, interest has grown in multi-enzyme NSPase technologies, which combine multiple exogenous enzymes that break down otherwise indigestible polysaccharides in feedstuffs. Commonly produced through solid-state fermentation, they provide a diverse range of enzymatic activities along with intrinsic heat stability. These benefits often result in greater energy and nutrient utilization, even in corn- and soybean meal–based diets.

More than an Energy Story

Some of the first questions producers ask about NSPases are “What are the matrix values?” and “What is the return on investment?”. While costs often vary too widely to make a confident ROI estimate, quality multi-enzyme NSPase matrix values show ample nutritional and performance upsides in addition to energy improvements.

Metabolizable energy is a given component of any NSPase matrix table, but the best options also free significant quantities of essential amino acids and other nutrients. Cowieson estimates that more than 440 kcal/kg of digestible energy and ~16% of the normally indigestible protein content are left on the table simply due to the NSP fraction of corn- and soybean meal–based diets.³ Using multi-enzyme NSPases to free these nutrients in turn helps save producers money on feed by decreasing the need for expensive fat sources and supplemental amino acids.

The effects of multi-enzyme NSPase products on diet formulation also directly transfer into feed manufacturing. Recent research from West Virginia University highlights that decreasing the mixer-added fat inclusion rate by 1.0%–1.5% can often result in a pellet durability increase of greater than 10 percentage points, an improvement that is widely accepted to affect bird performance.^4,6

Additionally, high-quality multi-enzyme NSPases can positively affect gut morphology and overall digestive efficiency. Research shows that the inclusion of multi-enzyme NSPases can decrease ileal digesta viscosity, increase the ileal villi height-to-crypt depth ratio, upregulate nutrient transporters, and increase prebiotic and short-chain fatty acid concentrations linked to overall improvements in gut health.^1,5,9 These benefits often translate to performance improvements in live weight gain, feed conversion ratio, and/or mortality percentage by limiting secondary infections or diseases through microbiome modulation.^2,9

Table 1. Effect of a multi-enzyme NSPase on broiler performance across multiple research trials. All data are presented as the change resulting from the use of a multi-enzyme NSPase relative to the negative control.

Takeaways for Producers

Corn- and soybean meal–based diets are commonly regarded as the gold standard of poultry nutrition, but even the best can be better. The NSP fraction of these diets contains inaccessible energy and limits more complete nutrient utilization. Supplementation with multi-enzyme NSPases can liberate these nutrients to maximize digestive efficacy, gut health, and nutrient availability. As poultry production continues to evolve toward achieving a more optimal bird performance, so must the nutritional and health strategies we use to get there, even if it means rewriting the gold standard.

See how Enspira+ is helping producers unlock more from today’s corn and soybean meal diets. Learn more >

References

1. Alqhtani, A. H., Al Sulaiman, A. R., Alharhi, A. S., & Abudabos, A.M. (2022). Effects of exogenous enzymes cocktail on performance, carcass traits, biochemical metabolites, intestinal morphology, and nutrient digestibility of broilers fed normal and low-energy corn-soybean diets. Animals, 12(9), 1094. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12091094
2. Cai, Y., Zhang, M., Hamada, O., & Song, Z. (2026). Multi-enzyme supplementation enhances performance, intestinal and skeletal development in broilers fed low-nutrient diets. Poultry Science, 105(2), Article No. 106234. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psj.2025.106234
3. Cowieson, A. J. (2010). Strategic selection of exogenous enzymes for corn/soy-based poultry diets. The Journal of Poultry Science, 47(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.2141/jpsa.009045
4. Glover, B. G., Foltz, K. L., Holáskova, I., & Moritz, J. S. (2016). Effects of modest improvements in pellet quality and experiment pen size on broiler chicken performance. Journal of Applied Poultry Research, 25(1), 21–28. https://doi.org/10.3382/japr/pfv054
5. Jiral, E. J., Rocha, J., Leyva-Jimenez, H., Soto, C., Dirks, B., & Archer, G. S. (2026). The effects of a multi-carbohydrase enzyme complex and direct-fed microbial supplementation to energy-reduced diets on broiler performance and carcass traits. Poultry, 5(5), 59. https://doi.org/10.3390/poultry5050059
6. Knarr, L. E. (2026). Optimization of feed manufacturing productive capacity, feed quality, and feed safety utilizing a variety of pellet die parameters, feed additives, conditioning specifications, and simulated feed bin storages [Doctoral dissertation, West Virginia University]. The Research Repository @ WVU. https://doi.org/10.33915/etd.13245
7. Knudsen, K. E. B. (2014). Fiber and nonstarch polysaccharide content and variation in common crops used in broiler diets. Poultry Science, 93(9), 2380–2393. https://doi.org/10.3382/ps.2014-03902
8. Leyva-Jimenez, H., Burden, Y., Soto, C., McCormick, K., Woodward, A., & Dirks, B. (2024). Effect of supplementing a multi-carbohydrase enzyme complex to corn–soy-based diets on growth performance, intestinal digesta viscosity, and carcass traits of broiler chickens. Journal of Applied Poultry Research, 33(1), Article No. 100387. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.japr.2023.100387
9. Singh, A. K., & Kim, W. K. (2021). Effects of dietary fiber on nutrients utilization and gut health of poultry: A review of challenges and opportunities. Animals, 11(1), 181. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11010181