Nutrient digestibility of brewers single cell protein.
Six growing wethers were used in a total collection digestion trial to estimate the nutrient digestibility of brewers single cell protein (BSCP). The BSCP product was obtained by allowing microbial growth to occur aerobically on the effluent wash waters of a brewery and then harvesting the solids through a spray drying procedure. This process produced a dry powder product containing 50% crude protein. Wethers were fed a corn-based diet with BSCP replacing corn at 0, 20 and 40% of the diet in a 3 X 3 replicated Latin square design. There were no consumption or palatability problems encountered when wethers were fed BSCP-containing diets. Nutrient digestibility of BSCP was estimated by a least-squares analysis regressing apparent digestibility of each nutrient on BSCP content. Digestion coefficients of BSCP for dry matter, energy and crude protein were calculated as 66.6, 73.3 and 86.5%, respectively. The addition of BSCP to corn-based diets decreased the overall diet digestibility of dry matter, energy and carbohydrate (P less than .05). Diet crude protein digestibility was not significantly affected by the BSCP addition. Nutrient digestibilities indicate brewers single cell protein is a satisfactory source of supplemental protein, approximately equivalent to cottonseed meal on a weight basis.
D000818:Animals; D004044:Dietary Proteins; D004063:Digestion; D002149:Energy Intake; D008297:Male; D011506:Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D012756:Sheep / Q000378:metabolism*
D004044:Dietary Proteins; D011506:Proteins; C012551:single cell proteins