Since 2013, Professor Sonia Liu and her team at the University of Sydney have worked in partnership with US-based animal nutrition company Novus International to address a persistent challenge in poultry nutrition: how to make better use of locally available feed ingredients without compromising performance.
Their research into protease enzymes has demonstrated a way to improve nutrient digestion from ingredients such as sorghum, helping producers reduce reliance on imported protein sources. The research has since been translated into commercial applications at an industrial scale, including by some of the world’s largest poultry producers.
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This research first came to life through a practical challenge raised by field nutritionists working with commercial poultry producers.
Sorghum is an important ingredient in Australian livestock production and a drought-resistant crop widely grown across northern New South Wales and Queensland. However, poultry performance could be inconsistent and difficult to predict when sorghum was used in feed.
The challenge was to understand why and what could be done about it. While imported soybean meal is readily digested by poultry, local alternatives such as canola meal can be less digestible, making it harder for producers to achieve consistent performance and maximise the use of locally available feed ingredients.
Addressing the problem required expertise from across the poultry feed supply chain. Sonia and her team first worked directly with poultry nutritionists and sorghum breeders, with the research identifying that a key part of the problem was the structure of sorghum proteins. These proteins are naturally compact and less accessible to the digestive enzymes produced by poultry.
Sonia then worked closely with Novus to evaluate a novel protease technology designed to target this challenge. The partnership brought together expertise in crop breeding, poultry nutrition and feed enzyme technology, while Novus provided industry feedback that enabled the research and product to be tested in a commercially relevant context.
The collaboration has continued for more than a decade, expanding from the original sorghum challenge to a broader range of feed ingredients where protein digestion can constrain animal performance.
Our collaboration with Professor Sonia Liu and The University of Sydney demonstrates the value of bringing together complementary strengths from academia and industry. Our joint protease research has shown how scientific excellence and practical industry perspectives can generate meaningful insights.
Oceania Director, NOVUS
The research demonstrated that adding an exogenous enzyme could improve the digestion of protein in sorghum-based poultry diets.
This provided proof of concept that enzyme technology could help unlock nutrients that would otherwise be less accessible to the bird, creating a pathway for the poultry industry to make greater use of locally available and alternative feed ingredients.
Importantly, the research did not stop with sorghum. Building on the initial findings, the collaboration expanded to other ingredients where protein digestion remains a constraint, including protein-rich local by-products such as canola meal.
The result is a research approach that can help the industry extract greater nutritional value from a wider range of feed ingredients. It also has the potential to reduce nitrogen excretion during production and reliance on imported protein sources such as soybean meal.
The value of NOVUS protease extends well beyond amino acid and protein digestibility alone. Over the years, our understanding of the protease benefits has evolved considerably, including improved nutrient utilisation, management of ingredient variability, support of gut health and intestinal integrity, and enhanced young bird performance and development. This will be something worth looking into as we broaden our understanding of protease application.
Oceania Director, NOVUS
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