Abstract
Three experiments were conducted to evaluate the use of chromic oxide-paper which contained approximately 42% of chromic oxide, on dry matter basis, as an indicator for the determination of the digestibility with pigs. The first and the second experiments compared the fecal recovery of chromic oxide-paper with that of chromic oxide-powder and of 4N-HCl insoluble ash, respectively. The third experiment studied the effects of collection time of feces on the digestibilities of dry matter, crude protein and energy using the chromic oxide-paper method. The fecal recovery of chromic oxide administered as paper was in the range of 99.2-101.5% and the digestibilities determined by this method were practically identical to those obtained by the total collection method. The fecal recoveries of the chromic oxide administered in the form of powder and of the 4NHCl insoluble ash were 89.8 and 90.9%, respectively, and digestibilities determined by those two indicator methods were significantly (P<0.05) lower than those determined by the chromic oxide-paper and total collection methods. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) in the digestibilities among the three collection periods (08:30-12:00, 12:00-15:30 and 15:30-08:30), indicating that the time for fecal collection is not critical.
