Cell wall of feeds and their impact on protein digestibility: An in vitro method applied for pig nutrition

Abstract

Plant-derived by-products of the food, drink, and fuel industry are low-cost ingredients, that are routinely used to formulate feeds for livestock, especially for pigs. Often, those ingredients are rich in dietary fibres (DF), which is known to have a negative influence on the digestive use of nutrients in pigs. The effect of DF on nutrient bioaccessibility (i.e., the release of nutrients from the plant tissue) and digestion (i.e., transformation of the plant tissue during digestion and the hydrolysis of nutrients by digestive enzymes) depends on their amount, but more importantly, on their nature and organisation within the cell wall. The aim of this work was to determine how DF from different sources affected protein bioaccessibility and proteolysis. We hypothesised that protein released from the feed matrix and hydrolysis in pig feed depend mainly on the nature and amount of cell wall polysaccharides (i.e., dietary fibre). To test this, we conducted an in vitro study where nine feed ingredients commonly used in pig feeding (i.e., soybean meal, barley, wheat, two varieties of peas, fava bean, chickpea, maize and sugar beet pulp) were digested using a simulated gastrointestinal digestion model. Cell wall integrity and proteolysis were assessed using biochemical, biophysical, and microscopic techniques. Protein bioaccessibility differed among the ingredients (P < 0.01), with sugar beet pulp and maize having the lowest fraction of protein released from the plant tissue (about 34 %) and chickpea the greatest (93 %). Protein hydrolysis values also varied greatly among the ingredients (P < 0.01) but did not always follow the same trend as that of bioaccessibility. For instance, soybean meal had the highest protein hydrolysis with 96 % and sugar beet pulp the lowest with 50 %. The particle size distribution and microscopy images provide an explanation for these differences, related to the physical barrier, swelling, and rupture of the cell wall. This study illustrated that the cell wall structure is specific for each ingredient, with consequences on bioaccessibility and digestibility that cannot be characterised by the composition in DF alone. In feed formulation, this concept ought to be accounted for to achieve optimal use and uptake of nutrients by the animal.