A comparison of methods to determine amino acid digestibility of feed ingredients for chickens.
Two experiments were conducted to compare standardized ileal amino acid (AA) digestibility in 7- and 21-d-old chicks and true AA digestibility as determined by the precision-fed cecectomized rooster assay for several ingredients used in poultry feeds. Diets were formulated to contain soybean meal, cottonseed meal, poultry by-product meal, and fish meal in experiment 1 and corn, wheat, soybean meal, poultry by-product meal, feather meal, and fish meal in experiment 2 as the sole sources of protein. Celite, used as an indigestible marker, was added at 1.5% of the diet. The test diets were fed ad libitum to broiler chicks from 0 to 7 d of age in experiment 1 and from 4 to 7 and 17 to 21 d of age in experiment 2. Ileal digesta samples were collected after euthanizing the birds at 7 d of age in experiment 1 and at 7 and 21 d of age in experiment 2. Additionally, cecectomized, Single-Comb White Leghorn roosters were used for crop intubation of the test diets for determination of true AA digestibility. In experiment 1, AA digestibility of all ingredients tested was significantly lower at 7 d of age than when determined by the rooster assay. In experiment 2, no differences were detected between AA digestibility at 7 or 21 d of age in the chick assay for the majority of the indispensable AA. However, the AA digestibility coefficients obtained by the chick assay at 7 d and, in some cases, at 21 d of age, were significantly lower than those obtained by the rooster assay. In conclusion, there were differences in the AA digestibility coefficients obtained through the chick and the rooster assays. Such discrepancies could be associated with an age effect or the methodological differences between both methods.
Garcia
A R
AR
Department of Poultry Science, 208 Poultry Science Building 2772, University of Georgia, Athens 30602-2772, USA.
Batal
A B
AB
Dale
N M
NM
D000596:Amino Acids / Q000378:metabolism*; D000821:Animal Feed / Q000032:analysis*; D000824:Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D000818:Animals; D004032:Diet / Q000662:veterinary*; D004063:Digestion / Q000502:physiology*; D005241:Feathers / Q000378:metabolism; D005396:Fish Products; D005766:Gastrointestinal Contents / Q000737:chemistry; D008297:Male; D013025:Glycine max / Q000378:metabolism; D014908:Triticum / Q000378:metabolism; D003313:Zea mays / Q000378:metabolism
D000596:Amino Acids