Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) whey product as protein source for growing pigs

Abstract

A digestibility and balance trial was performed with three growing pigs to evaluate the nutritive value and protein utilization of a carboxymethyl cellulose(CMC) whey product used to replace 50 % or 100 % of the dried skim supplement in a barley-based diet. The effect of CMC whey on clinical chemical blood parameters was also investigated. The CMC whey protein contained 39.6 % crude protein and 36.0 % true protein in DM. The proportion of CMC in the product was 18.3% of DM. CMC whey had high contents of lysine, cystine, methionine and threonine: 10.3, 2.9, 2.1 and 5.6 g/16 g N, respectively. NFE digestibility was lower on the CMC whey diet than on the skim milk diet (P < 0.05). Faecal excretion of CMC averaged 59.0 %. Protein utilization was effective on the CMC whey diet: 69.9 % of absorbed N was retained. Judging from the blood analyses, the CMC whey product did not have any detrimental effect on the metabolism or health of the pigs. The CMC whey product is well suited as a protein supplement in pig feeding because of its high contents of essential amino acids.