Apparent ileal and faecal digestibility of amino acids in barley-based diets supplemented with soya bean meal or canola meal for growing pigs

Abstract

Eight barrows (38–43 kg) were surgically fitted with ileo-caecal re-entrant cannulae in order to determine the digestibility of amino acids (AA) in barley-based diets formulated to contain 15% crude protein by supplementation with soya bean meal (B + SBM) or canola meal (B + CM). With the exception of methionine and threonine, the levels of the indispensable AA were higher in the B + SBM diet than in the B + CM diet. The ideal digestibility of the indispensable AA averaged 76.1% for the B + SBM diet and 71.4% for the B + CM diet, while the faecal digestibility of the indispensable AA was higher than the ileal digestibility and averaged 83.9% for the B + SBM diet and 80.1% for the B + CM diet. The ileal digestibility of isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine, threonine, aspartic acid, proline and serine was significantly higher ( P < 0.05) for the B + SBM diet than the B + CM diet. The faecal digestibility of isoleucine, leucine, threonine and serine was significantly ( P < 0.05) higher for the B + SBM diet than the B + CM diet. Significant differences ( P < 0.05) were observed between the ileal and faecal digestibility of all AA, with the exception of methionine in the B + SBM and B + CM diets and lysine in the B + SBM diet.