Comparison of Amino Acid Digestibility of Dietary Cereals at Different Sites of Chicken Intestines

Abstract

The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary cereals such as corn, sorghum, wheat, hulled barley and naked barley on amino acid digestibility using fistulized chickens. Chickens were fistulized to either the distal end of the jejunum, the middle part of the ileum, the distal end of the ileum or the distal end of the rectum. The cereals were supplemented as the sole source of protein in each experimental diet. Intestinal digesta were collected from each site of the intestines, and the contents of amino acids were measured. There was no significant difference in the true digestibilities of all measured amino acids between the sites of chicken intestines. However, the true digestibilities of 13 amino acids (Asp, Thr, Ser, Gly, Ala, Val, Met, Ile, Leu, Tyr, Phe, His and Arg) in the hulled barley group, 10 amino acids (Asp, Thr, Ser, Gly, Ala, Val, Met, Ile, Leu and Tyr) in the naked barley group, nine amino acids (Asp, Thr, Gly, Ala, Met, Ile, Leu, Tyr and Arg) in the wheat group and five amino acids (Gly, Met, Lys, His and Arg) in the sorghum group were lower than those in the corn group. These results clearly demonstrate that corn shows the highest amino acid digestibility among cereals used in this study and that there is no significant effect of sampling site on the amino acid digestibility of the dietary cereals.