Determination of amino acid balance in the gastrointestinal tract of chickens

Abstract

11 different feedstuffs (barley, wheat, rye, oat, wheat bran, soybean meal, peanut meal, cottonseed meal, rapeseed meal, horse bean, fish meal) were tested with adult colostomized broiler hens in digestion experiments; the digestibility of the crude protein and the amino acid (AA) balance of the gastro-intestinal tract were ascertained. The results achieved can be summarised as follows: The AA-composition in faecal protein is relatively independent of the AA-composition of the feedstuffs, it is not constant, however. The NPN-quota in faecal crude protein rises with the increasing crude fibre content in the feed. AA-digestibility calculated from the balance of the gastro-intestinal tract is, with the exception of some AA, in particularly the limiting ones, higher than the digestibility of the crude protein. As the AA-balance of the gastro-intestinal tract does not give a realistic picture of the digestibility of the AA, we recommend to ascertain the AA-balance up to the end of the small intestines in order to gain more profound knowledge with the help of such basic investigations with selected feedstuffs.