title: Use of near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy for the rapid determination of the digestible energy and metabolizable energy content of corn fed to growing pigs.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The ability of near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) to determine the digestible energy (DE) and metabolizable energy (ME) content of corn fed to growing pigs was tested. One hundred and seventeen corn samples, comprising different planting regions and varieties were collected from all over China in a three-year period. The samples were randomly split into a calibration set (n = 88) and a validation set (n = 29). The actual and calculated DE and ME content of the corn samples was determined by digestion-metabolism experiments and the prediction equations of Noblet and Perez (J Anim Sci. 71:3389-98,1993). The samples were then subjected to NIRS scanning and calibrations were performed by the modified partial least square (MPLS) regression method based on 77 different spectral pre-treatments. The NIRS equations based on the actually determined and calculated DE and ME were built separately and then validated using validation samples.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The NIRS equations obtained from actually determined DE, the coefficient of determination for calibration (RSQcal), cross-validation (R(2) CV), and validation (RSQv) were 0.89, 0.87 and 0.86, and these values for determined ME were 0.87, 0.86 and 0.86. For the NIRS equations built from calculated DE, the RSQcal, R(2) CV, and RSQv values were 0.88, 0.85 and 0.84, and these values for calculated ME were 0.86, 0.84 and 0.82. Except for the equation based on calculated ME (RPDv = 2.38, < 2.50), the other three equations built from actually determined energy and calculated DE produced good prediction performance (RPDv ranging from 2.53 to 2.69, > 2.50) when applied to validation samples.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results indicate that NIRS can be used as a quantitative method for the rapid determination of the available energy in corn fed to growing pigs, and the NIRS equations based on the actually determined energy produced better predictive performance than those built from calculated energy values.
authors: State Key Lab of Animal Nutrition, College of Animal Science & Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193 China.
authors: Juntao
authors: J
authors: Li
authors: State Key Lab of Animal Nutrition, College of Animal Science & Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193 China.
authors: Quanfeng
authors: Q
authors: Li
authors: State Key Lab of Animal Nutrition, College of Animal Science & Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193 China.
authors: Defa
authors: D
authors: Li
authors: State Key Lab of Animal Nutrition, College of Animal Science & Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193 China.
authors: Yiqiang
authors: Y
authors: Chen
authors: State Key Lab of Animal Nutrition, College of Animal Science & Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193 China.
authors: Xiaoxiao
authors: X
authors: Wang
authors: State Key Lab of Animal Nutrition, College of Animal Science & Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193 China.
authors: Wunjun
authors: W
authors: Yang
authors: State Key Lab of Animal Nutrition, College of Animal Science & Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193 China.
authors: Liying
authors: L
authors: Zhang
keywords: Corn; Digestible energy; Growing pigs; Metabolizable energy; Near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy