SECRETION OF HOMOARGININE INTO THE GUT OF CHICKENS

A technique, based on the homoarginine present in guanidinated protein s, has been used to distinguish between endogenous secretions and exog enous dietary amino acids in the ileal digesta of monogastric animals. This technique assumes that the ingested homoarginine is not recycled into the small intestine after absorption, but this assumption is yet to be experimentally validated in chickens. The secretion of homoargi nine into the gut of broilers that were intravenously infused with 20 and 40 mmol/L homoarginine solutions was assessed. The plasma concentr ations of homoarginine increased with increasing concentrations of hom oarginine infused. However, only negligible levels of homoarginine (7. 0 to 45.2 mu g/g dry matter) were found in the digesta. Less than 0.01 % of the intravenously infused homoarginine was recovered in the intes tinal digesta, indicating that the secretion of homoarginine into the gut of chickens was insignificant.