A study of the protein and amino acid requirements of the growing New Zealand White rabbit with emphasis on lysine and the sulphur-containing amino acids

1978 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 601-613 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Spreadbury

1. New Zealand White (NZW) rabbits were given, between 4 and 8 weeks of age, a range of diets, based on oats and fish meal, containing from 104 to 255 g crude protein (nitrogen × 6.25; CP)/kg to establish the level of CP below which growth was retarded.2. In three experiments each diet was fed to four animals and food intake, growth and N balance were measured over 4 weeks. Body analysis was also carried out after two of the experiments.3. The rates of food intake and growth of animals increased with dietary CP concentration until a CP concentration of approximately 150 g/kg diet had been reached. Beyond this there was little further improvement. N balance studies showed that once this dietary concentration of CP had been reached, there was a reduced rate of N retention.4. Good agreement was found between N retention measured by balance methods and by body analysis: body composition showed a tendency towards an increase in fat and a decrease in N as the dietary protein concentration was reduced.5. Microbial protein produced in the caecum and eaten during coprophagy, was found to supplement the dietary protein by approximately 2 g CP/d, or by only 0.1 of a normal dietary intake of CP.6. In the second part of the study NZW rabbits were offered, between 5 and 8 weeks of age, diets based on oats containing 150 g CP/kg. The protein supplied by oats was supplemented with maize gluten, gelatin, groundnut meal, casein, soya-bean meal or fish meal.7. Rabbits offered diets containing casein, soya-bean meal and fish meal gained 40–50 g/d similar, to animals given a well-balanced control diet, while those given diets containing maize gluten, gelatin or groundnut meal gained approximately 30 g/d. This indicated that amino acid balance in dietary protein was important to the growing rabbit.8. In later experiments, diets based on cereals and groundnut meal supplemented with varying amounts of lysine and methionine were offered during a 3-week post-weaning period in order to assess requirements for those limiting amino acids.9. The addition of both lysine and methionine improved growth rates. The minimum requirements for normal growth were found to be 6.2 g methionine+cystine and 9.4 g lysine/kg diet.

1975 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 363-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Wetnli ◽  
T. R. Morris ◽  
T. P. Shresta

1. Three growth trials were done using male broiler chicks. In the first two trials, groundnut meal was used, with and without supplementary methionine and lysine. In the third trial, soya-bean meal was used with and without supplementary methionine. Protein levels ranged in the first trial from 120 to 420 g/kg diet and in the third trial from 120 to 300 g/kg diet. Thus the assumed minimal amino acid requirements of the chick were supplied by high levels of low-quality dietary protein.2. Diets based on cereals and groundnut meal did not support maximum live-weight gain or maximum efficiency of food utilization at any level of dietary protein. When the principal deficiencies of lysine and methionine were corrected, this protein mixture was capable of supporting the same growth rate as a control diet of cereals and herring meal.3. Diets based on maize and soya-bean meal did not support quite the same growth rate as similar diets supplemented with methionine, even though the protein level in the unsupplemented diets was sufficient to meet the assumed methionine requirements.4. These results are interpreted as examples of amino acid imbalance in diets composed of familiar feeding-stuffs. It is concluded that one cannot assume that the poor quality of a protein source can always be offset by increasing the concentration of dietary protein.


1977 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne U. Gjøen ◽  
L. R. Njaa

1. Young male rats were used in five experiments to study the utilization for growth of methionine sulphoxide, and the relationship between the sulphoxide content in the diet and the level of microbiologically determined methionine activity in blood or blood plasma. In one nitrogen-balance experiment methionine and methionine sulphoxide were compared as supplements to a casein diet and a fish-meal diet.2. Methionine sulphoxide was poorly utilized for growth when tested as the sole sulphur amino acid in an amino acid diet. Substitution of one-third of the sulphoxide with cystine improved utilization so that it approached that of methionine.3. Methionine alone and in combination with methionine sulphoxide were added to a soya-bean-meal diet. The sulphoxide showed no adverse effect on growth.4. Fish meal in which methionine had been oxidized to methionine sulphoxide was tested alone and in combinations with unoxidized fish meal. Only when the oxidized meal was given alone was there an appreciable effect on growth. The fish meals used were low in cystine.5. Whereas both methionine and methionine sulphoxide improved the N balance when a casein diet was given, there was no effect when a fish-meal diet was given.6. There was a linear relationship between methionine sulphoxide content in the amino acid diets and the methionine activity in the blood plasma. Methionine sulphoxide added to a soya-bean-meal diet or present in oxidized fish meal gave a curvilinear relationship, and the observed activities were lower than with the amino acid diets. Methionine activity in blood could not be used as an indicator of moderate amounts of methionine sulphoxide in protein-containing diets.


1966 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Kay ◽  
T. R. Preston ◽  
N. A. MacLeod ◽  
Euphemia B. Philip

1. Nitrogen balance studies were conducted on 8 early-weaned calves fed on four diets containing respectively Peruvian fish meal, soya bean meal, groundnut meal and dried distillers grains as the major sources of protein.2. Nitrogen retention differed significantly between diets, being highest on the fish meal diet, and lowest on the groundnut diet.


1992 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 281-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Gatel ◽  
G. Buron ◽  
J. Fékéte

AbstractTwo experiments were carried out with weaned piglets from 8 to 25 kg live weight in order to determine the dietary amino acid content necessary for maximum growth. Six diets based on wheat, soya-bean meal, soya-bean oil and free amino acids were compared in each experiment. Essential amino acids were in the same relative proportion for all diets: (methionine + cystine)/lysine = 0·60 to 0·65; threonine/lysine = 0·65; tryptophan/lysine = 0·19. The range of amino acid content was 9·53 to 12·52 g lysine per kg in the first experiment and 11·34 to 15·94 g lysine per kg in the second experiment. The number of piglets used per diet was 136 (20 pens) and 106 (16 pens) in respectively the first and the second experiment. The relationship between either dietary lysine content or daily lysine intake and growth rate was quadratic and significant. Dietary lysine content and daily lysine intake which enable maximum growth were calculated according to this model. Dietary lysine contents were 15·5 and 14·9 g/kg for the first 3 weeks (8 to 17 kg) and for the overall post-weaning period (8 to 25 kg) respectively. Daily lysine intakes were 10·6 and 13·3 g/day respectively for the same two periods. Reasons for these values being higher than those currently cited are discussed.


1974 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 155 ◽  
Author(s):  
ID Hume

The 35S content of ruminal microbial protein following intraruminal infusions of Na235SO4 was used to estimate the relative proportions of microbial and dietary protein in the duodenal digesta of sheep, and hence the proportion of the dietary protein which escaped microbial proteolysis in the rumen. When sheep were given a protein-free diet, the mean ratio of the specific activities of the sulphuramino acids in the duodenal microbial fraction (M) and the unfractionated duodenal digesta (D) was 0.97 ? 0.08 and 1.00 ? 0.06 in two separate experiments. When zein was included in the diet the ratio M/D increased to 2.35 ? 0.14, which indicated that 44 ? 3.4% of nitrogen in the duodenum was microbial. When casein was offered, the ratio M/D was 1.12 ? 0.05, which indicated that 91 ? 6.7% of duodenal nitrogen was microbial. When sheep were offered a partially purified diet containing fish meal, lupin meal, peanut meal or soya bean meal, the ratio MID indicated that 29, 65, 63 and 39% of the fish meal, lupin meal, peanut meal and soya bean meal, respectively, was degraded in the rumen; rumen ammonia levels (mg nitrogen/100 ml fluid) were 8.3, 20.9, 16.0 and 6.5, and nitrogen balances were 5.0, 2.4, 2.9 and 5.4 g/day respectively. The 35S-incorporation technique appears to provide realistic estimates of the proportions of dietary proteins which escape degradation in the rumen.


1981 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 359-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. H. Wilson ◽  
Jane Leibholz

1. In two separate experiments, forty-two pigs weaned at 4–5 d of age were given diets containing milk or soya-bean protein and slaughtered at 7, 28 or 35 d of age.2. The amino acid composition of the empty body of the pigs did not vary with age or sources of protein fed.3. The nitrogen and amino acid contents of the empty body gain were calculated between 7 and 28, and 7 and 35 d of age. The retention of absorbed N was greater in pigs given a soya-bean meal (SBM) diet than in pigs given milk or isolated soya-bean protein (ISP) diets.4. The retention of total absorbed N was greater in pigs given a pelleted milk diet (0.72) than in pigs given a liquid milk diet (0.58).5. Methionine and threonine appeared to be the first two limiting amino acids, as indicated by their high incorporation into the empty body, for pigs given soya-bean proteins in Expt 3, while methionine and lysine were the first two limiting amino acids for pigs given ISP in Expt 4.6. The addition of methionine to diets in Expt 3 reduced the retention of absorbed methionine in the empty body by 43–76%. Lysine supplementation did not alter the retention of the absorbed lysine.7. Retention of arginine, proline and glycine in the body was greater than the apparent absorption of each of these amino acids.


1987 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 415-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. G. Partridge ◽  
A. G. Low ◽  
J. J. Matte

ABSTRACTIn order to determine the relative nutritional value of rapeseed meal (var. Tandem) in comparison with soya-bean meal and fish meal, seven barley-based diets were formulated to provide 13·1 MJ digestible energy and 8·8 g total lysine per kg. They contained soya-bean meal (S), rapeseed meal (R) or fish meal (F) alone, or equal proportions (on a total nitrogen basis) of soya and rapeseed, soya and fish meal, rapeseed and fish meal or soya, rapeseed and fish meal. The study involved 14 pigs growing from 40 to 90 kg, each fitted with a T cannula in the terminal ileum. Dietary treatments were applied during 7-day periods according to a 7 × 7 Latin-square design, replicated twice. The pigs were fed at 12-h intervals. Ileal digesta were collected during two 12-h periods from each pig after adaptation to each diet. Nutrient apparent digestibilities were measured using chromium III oxide as a marker; for diets S, R and F, respectively, values were: dry matter, 0·58, 0·51 and 0·66 (s.e. 0·014); N, 0·72, 0·67 and 0·73 (s.e. 0·011); lysine, 0·79, 0·72 and 0·83 (s.e. 0·010), with a similar relationship between diets for most other amino acids. In general, values for diets containing combinations of the protein supplements were intermediate between those for diets containing the respective single supplements. Following the main trial, seven pigs were given a semi-purified diet containing rapeseed meal as the only protein source; this gave amino acid digestibility values similar to or slightly higher than diet R. Diet R, which contained 375 g rapeseed meal per kg, presented no palatability problem. Rapeseed meal of the quality used in this trial could contribute a substantial proportion of the protein supplement for growing pigs. Its value should be enhanced by formulating diets according to the ileal digestibility of the limiting amino acids.


1977 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 309-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. A. Woodham ◽  
Eileen M. W. Clarke

1. A fish meal, meat meal, soya-bean meal, groundnut meal and sunflower-seed meal of known amino acid composition were evaluated individually, and combined in all possible pairs, by the estimation of net protein utilization (NPU) and protein efficiency ratio (body-weight gain:crude protein intake; per) using rats. Each pair provided a total of 100 g protein/ kg diet made up so that the amounts of the constituents were (w/w) 100:0, 80:20, 60:40, 20:80 and 0:100.2. Marked synergistic effects were noted only for mixtures of sunflower-seed meal with soya-bean, fish and meat meals.3. Chemical score ([amount of limiting amino acid/the rat's requirement for the same amino acid] × 100; CS), but not essential amino acid index; geometric mean for the ratio, amount of essential amino acid: the rat's requirement for that amino acid, for all ten essential amino acids; EAAI), successfully predicted the rankings of all mixtures except groundnut meal-meat meal and groundnut meal-soya-bean meal, by both per and NPU tests.4. Although there is broad agreement linking results of per and NPU tests with results obtained by a more practical feeding trial in which the mixtures were evaluated as supplements to cereals, neither of these two standard tests is capable of predicting in every instance the advantages to be gained by mixing protein concentrates.


1979 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. J. Robinson ◽  
I. McHattie ◽  
J. F. Calderon Cortes ◽  
J. L. Thompson

ABSTRACTFour experiments were made during early lactation on individually penned Finnish Landrace × Dorset Horn ewes, each suckling two lambs. In Experiment 1, 14 ewes of mean body weight 74 ± 2·4 kg received daily, 1·9 kg dry matter, 20 MJ of metabolizable energy and 300 g of crude protein from a diet (H) containing hay, barley and fish meal. Reduction of the daily crude protein intake of half the ewes to 225 g by replacing fish meal with barley (diet L) in week 2 of lactation resulted in a decrease (P< 0·01) in daily milk yield of 0·53 kg (17%) compared with no change for ewes remaining on diet H. The effect was reversed by returning the ewes to diet H at the end of week 3. In Experiment 2 the use of four ewes fitted with abomasal cannulae showed that the additional non-ammonia nitrogen reaching the abomasum when fish meal was given was used with an efficiency of 0·51 for the production of milk nitrogen. In Experiment 3, involving 20 ewes, a restriction in protein intake for more than 10 days in early lactation by replacing the fish meal with barley depressed subsequent milk yield. In Experiment 4, 24 ewes were given either fish meal, soya bean meal or groundnut meal as protein supplements. In early lactation fish meal was superior by 0·40 and 0·43 kg of milk per day to soya bean meal and groundnut meal respectively, and this was attributed to the greater quantity of non-ammonia nitrogen reaching the abomasum in the fish meal compared with the soya bean meal and groundnut meal supplements. The commercial significance of the results is discussed.


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