The effect of diets containing wheat and rice brans with or without phytase supplementation on performance, intestinal carbohyd rase activities and mRNA expression of sodium- glucose transporter-1 (SGLT-1) in layers was studied. A total of 96 23-wk-old Hy-line W-36 were allocated in a completely randomized experimental design at random with 6 treatments and 4 replicate cages of 4 birds each. A control diet was used in this experime nt and then it was formulated to contain 10% wheat bran and 15% rice bran. Then phytase (2 g kg -1 ; 1000 FTU kg -1 ) was added to each diet. Feed intake, egg mass, feed conversion ratio, shell weight, shell thickness and Haugh units were not influenced by brans or phytase supplementation (p > 0.05). But egg production decreased in rice bran treatments (p < 0.05). In the jejunum, adding of phytase to control and diet co ntaining wheat bran increased the concentration of sucrase (p ≤ 0.01). Also, addition of phytase to control diet increased (p ≤ 0.001) the mRNA expression of SGLT-1 in the duodenum. It was concluded that feedin g layers with diets contai ning 10% wheat bran were practically feasible without compromising production performance, egg shell quality, and endogenous carbohydrase activity.
