Comparison of ileorectal anastomosis and the conventional method for the measurement of ileal digestibility of protein sources and mixed diets in growing pigs

Abstract

Apparent digestibility determined by collection of digesta at the terminal ileum has been shown to provide a reliable estimate of amino acid availability in pigs. As a routine technique for collecting ileal digesta, ileorectal anastomosis (IRA) has been proposed. In this trial, twelve Yorkshire × Chinese Black Pigs (45 kg) were used to compare IRA with the ileocaecal re-entrant cannula (IC) method, which was considered as a reference cannula technique. Three complex diets—a soyabean meal diet (SBMD), a rapeseed meal diet (RSMD), a Chinese common commercial diet (CCCD)—and three simple diets—a fish meal (Peru) diet (FM), a raw soyabean diet (RSB) and a single cell protein (SCP) diet—were used. The trial was conducted as a 6 × 6 Latin square design. The results show that, with the exception of the dry matter in SBMD and RSMD, organic matter in SBMD and CCCD, and valine, glutamic acid and analine in CCCD, similar values for dry matter, organic matter, energy, crude protein and amino acid digestibility were obtained in IRA and IC pigs on the six diets. Regression coefficients showed a close relationship between IRA and IC ( P < 0.01) of the apparent digestibility of nutrients, except for dry matter, organic matter and serine ( P < 0.05). There were no significant differences in growth and development between the IRA and intact pigs. In general, apparent digestibility of nutrients in FM was the highest and the complex diets had a higher digestibility of crude protein and amino acids than RSB and SCP. The digestibility of nutrients was almost equal between RSB and SCP.