Phosphorus (P) is an essential ingredient in animal and plant production; however too much or too little P can be a problem both for animal production and the environment. Phosphorus is an essential element for the growth and survival of poultry. In diets containing plant ingredients, such as corn and soybean meal, about 67% of the total P exists as phytate P that is P bound to phytic acid. All vegetable matters, particularly grains, cereals, and pulses or most of the components of animal feed, contains Phytic acid. This Phytic acid has the ability to absorb all the minerals like phosphate, calcium, magnesium, iron etc. because of the electrical charges present in them.

The ruminents have a certain amount of ability for production of Phytase enzyme to digest Phytic acid and release the minerals to a limited extent and hence only trace amount of these minerals are available to the animal system.

Poultry feed largely consists of seed like cereal grains and products derived from seed like oilseed meals and cereal by-products.

Vegetable feed ingredients contain phytic acid or phytate. Phytic acid is a naturally occurring organic complex, generally regarded as the primary storage form of phosphorus and inositol in the seeds of plants.

Phytate is a polyanionic molecule with the potential to chelate positively charged nutrients, which is almost certainly fundamental to the anti-nutritive properties of phytate. It binds not only to phosphorus but also to some other vital nutrients, making them unavailable to the body. Consequently, phytate also acts as an anti-nutritional factor

The phytase enzyme releases the bound phosphorous from the phytate and makes the phosphorous readily available for the animals.

Use of phytase enzyme is a new concept in the composite poultry feed for the industry in India. The enzyme will be used as feed additive for the release of phosphorous from phytic acid present in feed for poultry and other livestock and will be a replacement of Dicalcium Phosphate (a comparatively expensive ingredient). Phytase enzyme will improve the Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) and increase the profitability of Poultry industry. It will also reduce environmental pollution and for this reason, the use of phytase enzyme has been made mandatory in developed countries.

Dicalcium Phosphate is used in the animal feed as calcium and phosphate minerals.Phytase can be used to replace Dicalcium Phosphate in animal feed, possibly to the level of 50% to 60%. It benefits the swine and poultry industry in reducing the cost of feed because the level of di-calcium phosphate used in feed is reduced. Utilization of the phosphorus in phytic acid through phytase can also dramatically reduce pollution caused by indigested phosphorus in animal waste.

Feed constitutes about 70% of total costs in poultry production. Additionally, the sky-high price of energy, protein and phosphorus sources, which constitute some 90-98% of poultry feed, depending on the type and stage of the bird, has led to lower profits for farmers and even huge losses in many areas. Energy, protein and phosphorus cost savings can be among the most-effective solutions to improve farm profitability.