The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of extruded full-fat soybean (ESB) as a replacement for soybean meal (SBM) on nutrient intake, rumen fermentation, and growth performance of dairy calves. A total of 45 male Holstein dairy calves (42.0±0.5 kg of BW) were randomly assigned to one of three experimental diets: (1) 0% ESB (Control): 35.3% SBM no ESB; (2) 25% ESB: 27.0% SBM+9.0% ESB; and (3) 50% ESB: 19.0% SBM+19.0% ESB. All calves were weaned on day 56 of age and remained in the study until day 70 of age. During the pre-weaning and overall periods, substituting of SBM with ESB had no effect on intake of starter feed, metabolizable energy (ME), CP and non-fiber carbohydrate (NFC). Compared with the control, 50% ESB resulted in a decrease in starter feed intake, and intakes of other nutrients including CP, NFC and ME during the post-weaning period. Substituting SBM with ESB decreased intake of C16 : 0 and increased intakes of n-9 C18 : 1, n-6 C18 : 2 and n-3 C18 : 3 during the pre-weaning, post-weaning and overall periods. Using ESB as a replacement for SBM did not affect average daily gain, feed efficiency, rectal temperature and fecal score over the trial periods. Compared with control, the rumen concentration of NH3-N decreased for 50% ESB on days 35 and 56 of age but not when compared with 25% ESB. Rumen pH, total volatile fatty acids concentrations, and the molar proportions of ruminal acetate, propionate and butyrate were not different among treatments. Body measurements were not affected by the treatments. In conclusion, substitution of SBM with ESB may improve nitrogen utilization efficiency in dairy calves but slightly reduce post-weaning starter intake with no negative outcomes on growth performance and rumen fermentation.

We evaluated the influence of the main cereal of the diet and the degree of heat processing of rice on apparent ileal and total tract digestibility of nutrients and ileum morphology of pigs at 37 d of age. Control pigs were fed a complex diet that contained 500 g/kg cooked and flaked maize with a degree of starch gelatinisation (SG) of 840 g/kg. Experimental groups received the same complex diet in which maize was substituted (w/w) by rice with three different degrees of SG; 110, 520 and 760 g/kg that corresponded to raw rice and cooked rice processed under two different set of conditions. The digestibility of dietary components, except for nitrogen, was greater for the cooked rice – than for the raw rice – and the maize diet (P < 0·001). Pigs fed cooked rice had higher villus height to crypt depth ratio (P < 0·001) and greater percentage of zigzag-oriented villi and lesser percentage of tongue-oriented villi (P < 0·01) than pigs fed other diets. Compared with feeding maize, feeding rice improved dietary component digestibility and ileal morphology in piglets. Mild cooking of rice (SG = 520 g/kg) enhanced diet digestibility and ileum morphology. However, processing the rice to increase SG to 760 g/kg did not increase nutrient digestibility further and in fact impaired ileal morphology.

Lycopene is present mainly as cis-isomers in human serum and tissues whereas all-trans-lycopene predominates in tomato products, suggesting that all-trans-lycopene is isomerised in the body or is less bioavailable. The objectives of the present study were to develop processing conditions for tomatoes to obtain products with different cis-trans-lycopene isomer distribution and to assess their bioavailability. Healthy adult subjects (n 12) were recruited for this randomised cross-over trial. Each intervention was preceded by a 2-week washout period. Two tomato sauces, one rich in all-trans-lycopene (32·5 mg total lycopene/100 g sauce; 5 % cis-isomers), the other high in cis-lycopene (26·4 mg total lycopene/100 g sauce; 45 % cis-isomers), were produced by different heat-processing techniques. Each sauce (150 g) was served in a standardised meal at 08.00 hours after overnight fasting. Plasma TAG-rich lipoprotein fractions over 9.5 h following test-meal consumption as a measure of lycopene absorption were obtained and expressed as baseline-corrected area under the concentration v. time curves (AUC), using HPLC-electrochemical detection. AUC values adjusted for the amount lycopene consumed showed that total, total cis-, and all-trans-lycopene responses were significantly higher from the cis-isomer-rich sauce, compared with the all-trans-rich sauce, being 7·30 (sem 1·45) v. 4·74 (sem 1·08) nmol × h/l (P = 0·002), 3·80 (sem 0·76) v. 1·98 (sem 0·37) nmol × h/l (P = 0·0005) and 3·50 (sem 0·76) v. 2·76 (sem 0·76) nmol × h/l (P = 0·01), respectively. The present study demonstrates significant lycopene bioavailability from cis-lycopene-rich tomato sauce and highlights the importance of considering isomer-distribution for lycopene bioavailability. Furthermore, processing parameters can be controlled to alter isomer patterns of tomato products and influence lycopene bioavailability.

Forty-eight 4-week-old White Rock growing chickens (mean live weight 500 (s.e. 9·3) g) were given, by crop intubation, four isoencrgetic (13·1 M] metabolizable energy (ME) per kg dry matter (DM)) and isonitrogenous (120 g crude protein (CP) per kg DM) semisynthetic diets based on vetch (V) or bitter vetch (B) seeds, untreated or antoclaved at 120°C for 30 ruin (diets V, AV, B and AB, respectively). Autoclaving of the seeds caused some changes in amino acid (AA) composition but did not reduce the availability of A As, especially of lysine.

The average apparent AA digestibility values derived from ileal content were 0·75, 0·85, 0·59 and 0·85 for diets V, AV, B and AB, respectively, corresponding to true absorption values of 0·90, 1·00, 0·74 and 0·97, respectively. Although the apparent digestibility values of several AAs were relatively low (methionine, isoleucine, tyrosine and cystine), most were higher than 0·70. Heat treatment resulted in a significant increase (P < 0·05) in the AA apparent digestibility of both seeds. It is concluded that heat treatment is useful for improvement of vetch and bitter vetch seeds for inclusion in poultry diets.

A batch offish meal was (a) untreated, (b) heated to 130°C and (c) heated to 160°C under controlled conditions.

In trial 1, these materials were incorporated into a diet based on barley meal (278·7 g/kg), wheat starch (412·5 g/kg), maize meal (245·3 g/kg) and tallow (33·5 g/kg) at a rate of inclusion of 100 g/kg. Diets contained a vitamin/mineral pre-mix together with the inert marker titanium dioxide and were given to four pigs fitted with simple T-piece Heal cannulas over four time periods each of which lasted for 6 days and which allowed the determination of faecal and Heal apparent digestibilities of nitrogen and amino acids. The results indicated that over-heating fish meal results in a reduction in both Heal and faecal apparent digestibility although, as there was no effect of treatment on the quantity of nitrogen absorbed from the large intestine, the two measurements were directly related. Heal and faecal apparent digestibilities for individual amino acids were not the same as data for nitrogen and, accordingly, the latter cannot be used to predict the two former.

In trial 2, the three fish meal samples were included in diets formulated on the basis of total, faecal and Heal apparent digestible amino acids. The nine diets were given to pigs over the live-weight range 27·5 to 52·5 kg. Giving diets formulated on the basis of both faecal and Heal apparent digestible amino acids resulted in improved performance compared with giving diets based on total amino acids when the diets containing fish meal heated to 160°C, but performance achieved with diets containing untreated fish meal was still higher.

Heal apparent digestible amino acids from heat-treated fish meal are not completely available to the pig, and it is suggested that care needs to be taken in equating digestibility with subsequent availability. There appears to be no advantage of using Heal rather than faecal, apparent digestible amino acid values in texms of accuracy of diet formulation.