Influence of diet and microbial activity in the digestive tract on digestibility, and nitrogen and energy metabolism in rats and pigs

Abstract

1. Balance trials with respiration measurements were performed with twelve rats and twelve pigs given either low-or high-crude-fibre diets. There were six collection periods with the rats over a live-weight range of 86264 g and three collection periods with the pigs over a live-weight range of 30-55 kg. Measurements were made on the influence of microbial activity in the digestive tract on digestibility and nitrogen and energy metabolism. Dietary inclusion of the antibiotic Nebacitin was the method used to reduce the microbial population.2. The microbial activity in the hind-gut (pmol AT€'/$ air-dry contents) of antibiotic-treated rats was reduced to approximately one-tenth of that of untreated rats.3. Live-weight gain was not significantly affected in either species by a reduction in the microbial activity, in spite of a reduction in dry matter digestibility in animals with reduced microflora. 4.For rats on low-crude-fibre diets, a reduction in microflora reduced digestibility of all nutrients and energy and metabolizability of digestible energy by approximately 5.4%. All differences were highly significant. On high-crude-fibre diets the decrease was approximately 5.9%. In pigs on both crude fibre levels, the digestibility was also influenced by the level of microflora, but the pattern was somewhat different from that obtained with rats, with the Nebacitin treatment increasing the digestibility of N slightly, and the digestibility of fat markedly.5. Retained N in rats reached a maximum when the rats were approximately 60 d old and thereafter decreased with increasing age. However, for pigs daily N retention increased with age. The retained N:digested N value decreased linearly with age in the rats, but varied little with age over the range (104146 d) studied in the pigs.6. The metabolizability of gross energy (metabolizable energy (ME): gross energy) was significantly reduced with an increase in crude fibre level and by the addition of Nebacitin.7. Retained energy (RE) in relation to ME (RE:ME), was not significantly affected either by level of microbial activity or by crude fibre. 8.The ratio, RE as fat (RF):RE as protein (RP) increased as the animals grew. In the rat experiment there was a tendency for RP to be higher for animals with normal microflora than for animals with r e d u d microflora for both crude fibre levels.9. With rats, the regression analyses indicated that the energy requirement for maintenance could be influenced by both the level of microbial activity in the digestive tract and by the level of fibre in the diet. The net availability of ME for maintenance and growth by rats averaged 0.72 for all treatments.10. The net availability of ME for growth in the pigs averaged 0.65 for all treatments.

Effect of Salinomycin on Nutrient Absorption and Retention by Growing Pigs Fed Corn-Soybean Meal Diets With or Without Oat Hulls or Wheat Bran

“…1984 Dietary antibiotics have been shown to increase the apparent absorption of N from the small intestine (Just et al 1981;Eggum et al 1982), and although the present data suggest that SM may alter fermentation in the gastrointestinal tract of the pig, the site of this action is not known. The …”

Biochemical analysis of blood of native cattle in the hilly area of Bangladesh

“…Along with this, calcium level was found as 7.34 mg/dl and 8.01 mg/dl in male and female cattle respectively (p= 0.21) was agreed with the Kaneko, (1989). A parameter of kidney function test namely creatinine was estimated and no significance is found in between male (5.68 mg/dl) with female (5.51 mg/dl) cattle (p= 0.48) was agreed with Eggum et al (1982). In this present study we found that different concentration of glucose (mg/dl), total protein (g/dl), albumin (g/dl), cholesterol (mg/dl), LDL ( mg/dl), SGPT (U/L), SGOT (U/L), ALP (U/L), magnesium (mg/dl), calcium (mg/dl), phosphorus (mg/dl), uric acid (mg/dl) and creatinine (mg/dl) in different groups of cattle.…”

“…The results was also indicated that the uric acid was increasing at the increased of age but the variation was not significant ((p>0.05). Uric acid is a primary metabolic product of protein metabolism (Eggum et al, 1982). No significant variation (p > 0.05) was observed in creatinine.…”

The rat as a model for pigs: comparative values for the digestibility of NSP and other macronutrients

“…In contrast to human nutrition, however, the use of rats as models in pig nutrition is less well accepted, because it is relatively easy to obtain results from the pig itself. The great value of the rat as a model lies in the economic factors associated with facilities and time, which allows the use of large numbers of animals and a rapid production of results.The digestibility of energy and protein in the pig and rat is highly correlated for several diets (Eggum, 1973;Eggum et al 1982), indicating that the rat may be a good model for pigs for these variables. However, it is less clear whether rats are also suitable models for pigs with regard to the digestibility of other nutrients and the fermentation of non-digestible carbohydrates, primarily as NSP, by the gut microflora.…”