AMINO ACID DIGESTIBILITY AS AFFECTED BY VARIOUS FIBER SOURCES AND LEVELS 2. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FIBER LEVELS AND AMINO ACIDS DIGESTIBILITY

A number of correlation and regression analyses were performed on data from apparent and true digestibility of amino acids at ileal and fecal level with finishing pigs, in order to investigate whether these amino acid digestibilities could be predicted with certainly degree on their fiber fractions content (chemical analysis). The data comprised 16 diets varying in 4 levels of crude fiber and from 4 fiber sources. The relationships between fiber fractions including crude fiber (CF), NDF, ADF lignin and cellulose contents on apparent and true digestibility of almost all amino acids in both ileal and fecal level were negative, except glutamine at fecal level. In apparent digestibility at ileal level, the correlations of fiber fractions were moderate (r of NDF = 0.53 to 0.63; ADF, 0.50 to 0.77; cellulose, 0.50 to 0.75), with an exception of CF content was relatively high (r of 0.58 to 0.81). The correlations to true digestibility of amino acids were weaker. In case of at fecal level, the higher correlation (negative) was found with NDF than CF content. Estimations of amino acids digestibility were performed using regression equation. The data showed that apparent digestibility of amino acids could be estimated for almost amino acids except arginine, threonine, valine and tyrosine at fecal level and phenylalaine, valine and glycine at ileal level. The best prediction at ileal and fecal level ($r^2=0.55-0.77$ and 0.52-0.76), respectively was obtained with NDF content. Prediction for true digestibility of amino acids, none of fiber fractions could be estimated for arginine, leucine and valine at all collection levels. At ileal level, CF could be used for most of amino acids except phenylalanine, glycine and praline; cellulose, only for lysine and methionine and NDF, only for proline. At fecal level, glutamine digestibility could be estimated only from CF and ADF content. The best predictor at ileal level was ADF content whereas at fecal level was NDF content. These results indicate that lignin content could not be used as predictor for all amino acids at both levels neither in apparent nor true digestibility.