Replacing Hydrolyzed Soybean Meal with Recombinant β-Glucosidase Enhances Resistance to Clostridium perfringens in Broilers Through Immune Modulation

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The replacement of hydrolyzed soybean meal by recombinant β-glucosidase enhances resistance to Clostridium Perfringens in broilers

 

Dear Authors,

The manuscript is interesting and well prepared. Results confirm positive effect of enzymatic digestion soybean meal by β-glucosidase. Some corrections are required in the text, but mainly involved with text editing and Table 3.

Below I add some suggestions helpful in this process:

In title of manuscript

In case of  binominal nomenclature genus Clostridium starts from capital letter, but species name prefringens starts from small letter.

Abstract, Background, 4^th line from the bottom

In text of the manuscript is ‘…with recombinant β-glucosidase , ensuring almost complete…’. Space after β-glucosidase must be deleted.

Abstract, Results, end of 2^nd line from the top

In text of the manuscript is ‘… and FCR (P<0.01)…’ , but probability was determined on basis on sample of birds from population, in this case p-value is better description.

And other P-values must be also changed to p-value.

Footer, bottom left corner

Current information about year of publication and volume must be added.

Second page, 2^nd-3^rd line, first reference in text

In text is ‘…encompassing antioxidant[1]’. Normally in entire text of manuscript references are given after space.

Subsection 2.1. Enzymatic soybean meal preparation, 3^rd line in first paragraph

Font of reference [15] must be changed.

Third page, Table 1

In case of ingredients, soybean meal crude protein content (%) can be added.

Instead of Lysine, L-lysine HCl (78%) must be used.

ME (metabolizable energy), first slash can be deleted

First two lines description of premix content, font must be adapted to the rest of the text.

Subsection 2.8. Statistics and analysis

Last sentence describing significance levels, font must be adapted to the rest of lines in this paragraph

Table 3

Maybe better will be to add one more row of table under the table and add information about values before and after enzymatic digestion, because now this table is problematic in read. Number of decimals in case of mean value and sd must be the same.

Item	Before enzymatic digestion			After enzymatic digestion
	Daidzin	Glycitin	Genistin	Daidzin	Glycitin	Genistin
Prezymolysis (mg/kg)	45.06 ± 4.43	24.82 ± 0.79	58.23 ± 2.95	11.89 ±0.38	2.77 ± 0.29	14.94 ± 0.74
Postzymolysis (mg/kg)	0.21 ± 0.00	0.80 ± 0.04	2.32 ± 0.61	…	…	…
Conversion rate (%)	-	-	-	…	…	…

 

Table 4

Number of decimals in case of mean value and standard deviation must be equal.

p-value must be used (sample from population), with 3 decimals in each row of table.

Page 13, second line

‘… are belong to GH1;…’  font mut be adapted to the rest of text.

Page 13, second paragraph (‘…In soybeans and most soybean-derived foods…’)

Line spacing in first three lines of paragraph must be adapted to the rest of the text.

References subsection

Only in case of doi on the end first part of link https:// is required

 

https://doi.org/10.1002/mnfr.20200001 in case of reference no.1.

 

Author Response

Please see the attachment. 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

It is a very interesting document. It raises the generation of scientific knowledge that can be of great use to science. There are only a few minor flaws. The abstract should have a better structure. The introduction does not address important aspects such as further justifying the rationale for evaluating the Clostridium strain. Addressing the alternative use of β-glucosidases as a replacement for antibiotics, which is a worldwide concern. The methodology needs to integrate aspects on the ethical handling of animals during experimentation and evidence of a protocol that ensures animal welfare. It is necessary to indicate how the birds were housed, spaces, areas used, environmental conditions and feed management, and to add more specific aspects of the strain used as inoculum. In the results, the graphs are not very clear. They should be larger and clearer for visual clarity and interpretation. The discussion should be reinforced by comparison with previous studies where β-glucosidases have been used and their effect on immunity.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Comments on the Quality of English Language

 

 

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

I would have liked to see a corrected version (clean version) of the document. The current version complicates a proper reading of the paper. The abstract was structured in a more appropriate way as requested by the Journal. The introduction was improved and enriched with information related to how genistein stimulates immunity. In addition, relevant information on Clostridium perfringens in poultry was included. The methodology was also complemented and restructured with a more reader-friendly scheme. In the results section, the suggested changes have been made, but the graphs are still difficult to understand due to the size and sharpness of some of them.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf