What are the challenges in this part of the digestive tract?

A combination of low pH and host enzyme activity (pepsin) begins protein digestion in the feed. As enzymes are proteins themselves the presence of the pig's endogenous pepsin can be a challenge to all feed enzymes. At low pH phytate in feed tends to bind to proteins and other nutrients, making them less available to the pig.

What solution could be provided by an enzyme?

• Look for an enzyme that demonstrates excellent stability to pepsin to ensure that it is still able to act in the stomach.
• Look for a phytase that can function rapidly at low pH to prevent or reduce protein-phytate binding, at the same time as effectively releasing phosphorus.
• Look for other feed enzymes (e.g. carbohydrases) that will function effectively at low pH.