COMPARISON OF ILEORECTAL ANASTOMOSIS AND THE CONVENTIONAL METHOD FOR THE MEASUREMENT OF ILEAL DIGESTIBILITY OF PROTEIN-SOURCES AND MIXED DIETS IN GROWING PIGS

Apparent digestibility determined by collection of digesta at the term inal ileum has been shown to provide a reliable estimate of amino acid availability in pigs. As a routine technique for collecting ileal dig esta, ileorectal anastomosis (IRA) has been,proposed. In this trial, t welve Yorkshire x Chinese Black Pigs (45 kg) were used to compare IRA with the ileocaecal re-entrant cannula (IC) method, which was consider ed as a reference cannula technique. Three complex diets a soyabean me al diet (SBMD), a rapeseed meal diet (RSMD), a Chinese common commerci al 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 x 6 Latin square design. The results show that, with the exception of the dry matter in SBMD and RSMD, orga nic matter in SBMD and CCCD, and valine, glutamic acid and analine in CCCD, similar values for dry matter, organic matter, energy, crude pro tein and amino acid digestibility were obtained in IRA and IC pigs on the six diets. Regression coefficients showed a close relationship bet ween IRA and IC (P<0.01) of the apparent digestibility of nutrients, e xcept for dry matter, organic matter and serine (P<0.05). There were n o significant differences in growth and development between the IRA an d intact pigs. In general, apparent digestibility of nutrients in FM w as the highest and the complex diets had a higher digestibility of cru de protein and amino acids than RSB and SCP. The digestibility of nutr ients was almost equal between RSB and SCP.