MUNG BEANS (PHASEOLUS-AUREUS) FOR FINISHING PIGS

Digestible energy (DE) content of raw mung beans ( Phaseolus aureus (R oxb.) var Berkin) was 16.09 MJ kg(-1) of dry matter (DM), measured by total faecal collection for five days in a switch-over trial with six 53 kg live weight (LW) Landrace-Large White entire males fed at 34 g k g(-1) of LW, by substitution of 300 g kg(-1) of ground mung beans in a wheat-based diet. Mung beans contained 1.45 mg g(-1) of DM trypsin in hibitor (TI), 0.32 mg g(-1) of DM chymotrypsin inhibitor (CTI), 9 g kg (-1) of tannins and 51.2 haemagglutination units per gram of lectins. Finishing diets with 0, 100, 150, 200, 250 and 300 g kg(-1) of mung be ans substituted for soybean meal were formulated to contain 14.5 MJ of DE per kg, with a minimum of 0.65 g lysine per MJ of DE. Crude protei n (CP) ranged from 247 to 207 g kg(-1), neutral detergent fibre (NDF) from 180 to 209 g kg(-1) and ether extract (EE) from 69.6 to 53.3 g kg (-1) for diets with 0-300 g kg(-1) mung beans respectively. Diets were fed to 61 kg entire males at 40 g kg(-1) of LW for 30-35 days until s laughter at approximately 90 kg LW. Digestibility of organic matter (O M) (84.64 +/- 0.19%) and EE (69.77 +/- 0.32%) did not vary between die ts, while digestibility of CP declined from 79.51% to 77.05% (P< 0.05) and digestibility of NDF increased from 70.32 to 76.60% (P< 0.01) wit h increasing inclusion of mung beans. Growth rate, 0.96 +/- 0.02 kg pe r day, feed conversion, 2. 60 +/- 0.05 kg of feed kg(-1) gain and back fat thickness, 15.9 +/- 0.27 mm at the P2 site, did not differ between diets. Internal organs appeared normal; weights as a proportion of LW did not differ between diets (pancreas 1.5 +/- 0.14 g kg(-1) LW; stom ach 6.1 +/- 0.10 g kg(-1) LW; small intestine 19.6 +/- 0.34 g kg(-1) L W; large intestine 14.1 +/- 0.30 g kg(-1) LW; liver 20.7 +/- 0.35 g kg (-1) LW and kidney 3.8 +/- 0.11 g kg(-1) LW. Thus, diets did not diffe r in productive performance, or in the apparent effect of TI and CTI o n pancreas or of lectins and tannins on the gut, liver and kidney. A s afe inclusion level of 300 g kg(-1) in this experiment is double the v alue reported for other varieties and batches of mung beans. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.