Purine derivative excretion and ruminal microbial yield in growing lambs fed raw and dry roasted legume seeds as protein supplements

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Abstract

Urinary excretion of purine derivatives was used to estimate the microbial N supply to growing lambs in an experiment designed to examine the effect of raw and dry roasting whole lupin (lupinus angustifolius) seeds (WLS) and whole faba (vicia faba) beans (WFB) as protein supplements. Lambs were fed a fixed quantity of oat straw and alfalfa hay plus a daily legume seeds of either of the following: no legume seeds (CTRL), raw WLS, roasted WLS, raw WFB, or roasted WFB. Legume seeds were dry roasted at 150 °C for 45 min. Diets were isonitrogenous 15.9% CP. In supplemented diets, about 55% of protein was supplied by WLS or WFB protein. Excretions of the purine derivative allantoin, uric acid plus hypoxanthine and xanthine, were measured after total urine collection during an N balance trial to estimate microbial N supply to the duodenum. Lambs fed the five dietary treatments with similar total DM (1158 g per day) and CP intakes (185 g per day), but different UDP (rumen undegraded feed protein, from 57 to 106 g per day), DVE (truly digested protein in the small intestine, from 46 to 91 g per day) and OEB (degraded protein balance, from 3 to 45 g per day) values differed (P<0.05) in urinary excretion of uric acid plus hypoxanthine plus xanthine (1.7 in CTRL versus 2.7 mmol per day in supplemented groups) but did not differ in urinary excretion of allantoin (average: 10.5 mmol per day), total purine derivatives (average: 13.0 mmol per day), total purine derivatives absorption (average: 15.4 mmol per day), microbial CP supply (average: 69.8 g CP per day) to the duodenum and efficiency of microbial synthesis (average: 23.7 g of N/kg DOMR (digestible OM fermented in the rumen)) to growing lambs. Dry roasting and supplementation of WLS and WFB did not affect flow of microbial N into the duodenum.

Introduction

Legume seeds, usually have high protein and/or starch contents (Tamminga et al., 1990, Petterson and MacKintosh, 1994, Goelema, 1999, Yu et al., 2000), are well suited agronomically to the ecological and climatic conditions of many countries (Cerning-Beroard and Filiatre, 1977, Ensminger et al., 1978), and appear to be potential protein supplements in ruminant diets. Whole lupin (Lupinus angustifolius) seeds (WLS) and whole faba (Vicia faba minor) beans (WFB) both contain high protein (25–42%). The WLS contain negligible levels of starch while WFB contain more than 40% in dry matter (DM) (Yu et al., 1999). However both rapid and extensive degradation (85–90%) by rumen microbes (Cros et al., 1992, Benchaar et al., 1994, Yu et al., 1999, Yu et al., 2000) may result in an imbalance between feed protein degradation and microbial protein synthesis, causing unnecessary N loss from the rumen, and so may make them unsuitable and/or inefficient for use in the unprocessed form in diets for high producing ruminants.

Dry roasting WLS and WFB reduces rumen degradability of protein and starch and increases rumen escape protein (UDP) and escape starch (UDS) with increasing temperatures and times (Yu et al., 1999). Quantitative evaluation (Yu et al., 1999) with the DVE/OEB model (Tamminga et al., 1994) suggested that among the different heat treatments investigated, dry roasting at 150 °C for 45 min resulted in the highest DVE value (DVE=truly absorbable protein in the intestine) without producing negative OEB values, which could negatively affect microbial protein synthesis (OEB expresses the rumen degraded protein balance, which reflects the difference between potential microbial protein synthesis from available rumen degradable protein and that from rumen fermentable organic matter (OM)). A previous study (Yu et al., 1999), indicated that dry roasting of WLS and WFB at 150 °C for 45 min was effective in shifting protein degradation from the rumen to the intestines without affecting rumen microbial protein synthesis and intestinal digestion. However, these results were predicted based on the DVE/OEB model (Tamminga et al., 1994).

The objectives of this study were to determine the effect of supplementation of WLS and WFB and dry roasting on rumen microbial N supply to the duodenum of growing lambs estimated from the urinary excretion of purine derivatives (i.e. allantoin, uric acid, hypoxanthine and xanthine) using the prediction model of Chen and Gomes (1995).

Section snippets

Feedstuffs and treatments

The oat straw and alfalfa hay were purchased from Essendon Produce (Melbourne, Australia). The WLS and WFB were obtained from a commercial feed company (Peter Gibbs Stock Feeds, Melbourne, Australia). Minor contamination in legume seeds were soybeans and peas, in all cases contributing less than 0.2% in each legume seed. The legume seeds were dry roasted at 150 °C for 45 min as described by Yu et al. (1999). The chemical composition and estimated nutritional values of the feedstuffs are in Table 1

Chemical composition and nutritional values

Alfalfa contained CP of 17.8%, CF of 3.5%, UDP of 6.3%, DVE of 4.6% and OEB of 4.9 on DM basis (Table 1). Oat straw contained low CP (7.8%), lower CF (2.5%), lower UDP (5.2%) and DVE (1.0%) and negative OEB (−19.7 g/kg DM) values. WLS and WFB contained higher CP (28.2–34%), higher DVE (10.6–16.0%) and higher OEB (12.2–12.6%) values. Dry roasting increased DM content without affecting CP and ash contents. This could be attributed to moisture loss (Kibelolaud et al., 1993). Dry roasting increased

Rumen degradation characteristics of CP

The CP of raw WLS had a relatively high Kd (10.2%/h), high S (31.8%) and low U (0.8%), which contributed to a high estimated degradability in the rumen, resulting in only 25.9%UDP (Table 3). These values were similar to that (24%) reported by Van Straalen and Tamminga (1990), but inconsistent with results reported by Valentine and Bartsch (1988), Cros et al. (1992), Aguilera et al. (1992), and Kibelolaud et al. (1993), who reported UDP of 8.1, 4.9, 9.7 and 6.6%, respectively. Reasons for

Conclusion

Lambs fed oat straw and alfalfa hay diets replaced with raw or roasted lupins or faba beans with similar limit fed DM and CP intakes, but different UDP, DVE, and OEB values differed in urinary excretion of uric acid+hypoxanthine+xanthine, but did not differ in urinary excretion of the allantoin, total purine derivatives, microbial N supply or efficiency of microbial synthesis. Results indicate that dry roasting and supplementation of WLS and WFB had no effects on flow of microbial N into the

Acknowledgements

The project was partly funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation, Australia. The authors wish to thank Terry Squires (Victorian Institute of Animal Science, Werribee, Australia), Andrew Thalen and F. Nowniaz (the Institute of Land and Food Resources, University of Melbourne, Australia) for helpful assistance throughout the project, and Prof. Dr. David A. Christensen (University of Saskatchewan, Canada) for his help in preparation of the manuscript.

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