A STUDY OF INDIGESTIBLE PROTEIN-FRACTIONS OF RICE (ORYZA-SATIVA, L.) ENDOSPERM FED TO MICE (MUS MUSCULUS) AND SHEEP (OVIS MUSIMON) - A QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE-ANALYSIS

Rice (Oryza sativa L) endosperm protein was fed, both cooked and uncoo ked, to mice and sheep, animals that have monogastric and polygastric digestive systems respectively. Both species ale the rice diets; howev er, neither were able to completely digest the protein. This was evide nt as undegraded protein bodies and/or faecal protein particles (FPP) were present in the faecal matter. Significant differences between coo ked and uncooked rice degradability was found when fed to both the mic e and the sheep (P<0.05). The ruminant digestive system of sheep was s ignificantly better (P<0.05) at digesting the rice protein than was th e single stomach system of mice. The implications of this study reduce s the potential effectiveness of using FPP as carriers of medications or antigens, to a large group of domestic animals. (C) 1998 Academic P ress Limited.