The rat as a model animal for the growing pig in determining ileal amino acid digestibility in soya and milk proteins

The growing pig is an established model animal for humans to determine protein digestibility to the end of the small intestine. An ileal amino acid digestibility assay based on the laboratory rat offers an alternative. True ileal amino acid digestibility in high quality refined protein sources was determined and compared between the laboratory rat and the growing pig. Both species of animals were fed their daily ration in nine separate meals. Ileal digesta were collected at slaughter and chromic oxide was used as an indigestible marker. For several of the amino acids examined, there were no significant (p < 0.05) differences between the two species for true ileal amino acid digestibility, but for aspartic acid, serine, cysteine, methionine, tyrosine, phenylalanine and histidine, significant (p < 0.05) interspecies differences were found. The overall average amino acid digestibility, for all amino acids and all diets, was 95.8% for the pig and 96.1% for the rat. Cysteine digestibility was highly variable between individual animals fed the same diet. The extent of amino acid digestion and absorption appears to be broadly similar across the two species, but some important differences in digestibility were recorded.