A novel Bacillus sp. with rapid growth property and high enzyme activity that allows efficient fermentation of soybean meal for improving digestibility in growing pigs

Aims: Soybean meal (SBM) contributes high-quality dietary protein for pigs. However, it also contains antinutritional factors such as allergenic high molecular weight proteins and non-starch polysaccharides (NSP) that limit its use. Therefore, the objective of this study was to screen and characterize a robust Bacillus sp. from camel dung for soybean meal fermentation to improve the digestibility in growing pigs. Methods and Results: Molecular characterization revealed that isolate 9 (hereinafter referred to as “CP-9”) was a Bacillus subtilis strain. It secreted cellulase (0.07 U ml), xylanase (1.91 U ml), and amylase (2.66 U ml) into the culture supernatant. Isolate CP-9 showed rapid growth on LB agar plates and grew at a wide range of pH (3.0–9.0) and temperatures (23–50°C) in LB broth. Protein profiling of SBM using SDS-PAGE showed a significant reduction of large globular proteins to small peptides after 48 h of fermentation. On a dry matter basis, neutral detergent fibre (NDF) of the fermented SBM (F-SBM) was decreased by 34.25% (from 9.72 to 7.24%) with an increase in CP content by 16.54% (from 48.74 to 56.80%). Pigs fed with a semi-purified diet formulated with F-SBM as the sole source of crude protein had higher (p < 0.05) apparent ileal digestibility (AID) of DM (80.0 vs. 71.7%), ash (55.6 vs. 36.1%), CP (84.2 vs. 78.3%), NDF (70.9 vs. 66.0%), and ADF (62.4 vs. 53.3%) compared with pigs fed with unfermented soybean meal (UF-SBM). Conclusions: A novel Bacillus subtilis strain CP-9 was isolated and characterized from camel dung for efficient fermentation of SBM. This bacterium ameliorates physico-chemical characteristics of F-SBM and improved nutrient digestibility in growing pigs. Significance and Impact of the Study: Our data suggest that a low-cost solid-state SBM fermentation was developed using this newly isolated bacterium. The resultant F-SBM improved the nutrient digestibility in growing pigs.