Intestinal disaccharidases of young turkeys: temporal development and influence of diet composition.

An experiment was done to determine maltase, sucrase, isomaltase, and trehalase activities in mucosa of different segments of small intestines of young turkeys as influenced by age and diet. Two-day-old poults were fed diets containing no added fat [44.6% starch, 2.2% ether extract by weight (HC)], 10% tallow (T), or 10% corn oil [(CO) 29.0% starch, 10.9% ether extract]. Diets HC, T, and CO were calculated to contain 2,705, 3,083, and 3,196 kcal ME/kg, respectively, and constant protein, TSAA, and lysine:ME ratios were maintained. Appreciable maltase and isomaltase specific activities (micromoles of substrate hydrolyzed per milligram protein per hour) were observed in 2-day-old poults, and activities of these enzymes increased in poults fed the HC diet through 7 and 14 days, respectively. At 2 days, specific activity of sucrase was low, and trehalase activity was not detected. Sucrase activity increased steadily through 28 days of age in poults fed the HC diet. Trehalase activity was detected at 7 days of age and reached a maximum by Day 21 after hatch. By Day 28, trehalase activity had disappeared from all segments except for the proximal jejunum. In 28-day-old poults fed the HC diet, specific activities of all disaccharidases were greatest in the jejunal segments; i.e., 21, 1.06, 7.24, and .034 mumol/mg protein/h for maltase, sucrase, isomaltase, and trehalase, respectively, in the proximal jejunum. Poults fed the T or CO diets had significantly lower disaccharidase activities than did those fed the HC diet, beginning at 7 days of age. Changes in specific activities of disaccharidases as related to age or diet or both were not always parallel, suggesting that each enzyme may be regulated by or affected by diet in a partly independent way.