Variation in amino acid digestibility of rapeseed meal studied in caecectomised laying hens and relationship with chemical constituents

1. The objectives were to study the variation in amino acid (AA) digestibility of rapeseed meal in laying hens and to investigate whether the variation in AA digestibility can be explained by chemical constituents of the rapeseed meal. Nine rapeseed meals from different processing plants operating in Germany were used. The crude protein and crude fibre concentrations of the meals ranged from 367 to 410 and 137 to 175?g/kg dry matter (DM), respectively. The concentrations of total glucosinolates varied between 5·1 and 12·9?mmol/kg DM. Each meal was included in one of the experimental diets at an inclusion level of 200?g/kg at the expense of maize starch.

2. A total of 16 Lohmann Brown laying hens were used for this experiment and were surgically caecectomised. They were housed individually in metabolism cages. Each of the 10 diets was fed to at least 6 hens in 4 periods of two weeks duration. Excreta were collected during the last 5?d of each period. The digestibility coefficient of AA was calculated for each diet. The digestibility of the rapeseed meals was calculated by multiple linear regression analysis.

3. Mean essential AA digestibility of rapeseed meals varied between 0·78 and 0·84. Among the essential amino acids, the highest level of digestibility was found for arginine (0·88) and methionine (0·87), and the lowest for lysine (0·74) and threonine (0·75). The highest variation between rapeseed meals in digestibility was found for threonine (0·68 to 0·79) and lysine (0·68 to 0·78). The concentration of neutral detergent insoluble nitrogen of the rapeseed meals was negatively correlated with the digestibility of lysine, but was not significantly correlated with digestibility of any other AA. Glucosinolate concentration was significantly correlated with valine digestibility.

4. Multiple regression analysis showed that the concentrations of crude protein and ash together were the major factors considered to explain variation in digestibility of essential AA. Additional consideration of neutral detergent insoluble nitrogen and total glucosinolates improved the goodness of fit only marginally and was unlikely to be of practical significance.