Ileal amino acid digestibility of some novel dietary protein sources for growing chickens

Abstract

The apparent ileal digestibility coefficients of amino acids in five high-protein ingredients (casein, isolated soyprotein, maize gluten meal, spray-dried bovine plasma (SBP) and spray-dried porcine plasma (SPP)) and soybean meal were determined using 3-week-old broiler chickens. The amino acids in casein were highly digestible. Isolated soyprotein was also well digested by the birds, but the digestibility coefficients of all amino acids in isolated soyprotein were lower (P < 0.05) than those in casein. The amino acid digestibility coefficients in isolated soyprotein were greater (P < 0.05) than those in soybean meal, which may be reflective of reduced concentrations of anti-nutritive factors, particularly indigestible oligosaccharides. The digestibilities of amino acids in maize gluten meal were higher (P < 0.05) than those in soybean meal, except for the digestibilities of arginine, histidine, threonine and aspartic acid, which were similar (P > 0.05) between the two protein sources. The ileal digestibilities of all indispensable amino acids in SBP and SPP were lower (P < 0.05) than those in casein and isolated soybean meal but higher (P < 0.05) than those in soybean meal. No differences (P > 0.05) were observed in the digestibility of amino acids between SBP and SPP. The overall mean amino acid digestibility coefficients of casein, isolated soyprotein, soybean meal, maize gluten meal, SBP and SPP were 0.955, 0.888, 0.823, 0.849, 0.860 and 0.856 respectively. © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry.