APPARENT ILEAL DIGESTIBILITY OF AMINO-ACIDS IN WET WHEAT-PROTEIN AND SOYA BEAN MEAL FOR GROWING PIGS

A study was conducted on four castrated male pigs to determine the app arent ileal digestibility (AID) of crude protein (CP) and amino acids in wheat protein (WP), a wet by-product of the starch and gluten indus try, and in soya bean meal (SBM). The pigs were fitted with a steered ileo-caecal valve cannula at a liveweight of 35 kg. They were assigned to two semi-purified wheat starch based diets, with either WP or SBM as a sole protein source, and fed according to a three-period reversal design. The diets were formulated to contain 140 g CP/kg DM, 11.3 MJ net energy/kg DM and similar amounts of lysine, methionine and threoni ne. The CP control and the lysine and threonine contents in CP were lo wer in WP than in SBM. Nearly half of the DM in WP was starch, and the crude fibre content of the product was very low. The apparent ileal a nd total tract digestibilities of CP were very similar in both the WP and SBM diets. The AID of methionine was higher in WP (88.2%) than in SBM (84.6%) diets (P<0.01) but no differences were found in the AID of the other amino acids. The results show that the AID values of CP and amino acids in WP in growing pigs are comparable to those in SBM.