1. The availability of lysine in four meat meals (MMs), four meat and bone meals (MBMs) and two blood meals was determined using the slope-ratio assay with growing pigs, rats and chicks and with two chemical techniques.2. The availability of lysine (proportion of total) in the eight MMs or MBMs ranged from 0.48 to 0.88 for pigs, from 0-49 to 0.88 for rats and from 0.68 to 0.88 for chicks. There was no apparent relation between the availability estimates for pigs, rats and chicks for the individual meals.3. For the two blood meals, availability estimates were 1.03 and 1.13 for pigs, 0.81 and 0.80 for rats and 1.07 and 1.02 for chicks.4. Values for the indirect and direct 1-fluoro-2,4-dinitrobenzene-'available'-lysine assays ranged from 0.77 to 0.88 and 0.78 to 0.93 respectively for the eight MMs and MBMs. There appeared to be no relation between these values and the pig estimates.Previous work indicated that meat meal (MM) and meat and bone meal (MBM) were of low quality for pigs (Batterham et a!. 1978) with an available lysine content (proportion of total) in MBM of 0.49 (Batterham et al. 1979). This low availability may be due to the composition of the material used to produce the meal (flesh, collagen and bone) or to processing conditions.The low lysine availability in MBM for pigs was not detected by either the indirect- ( (Fox, 1971 ; E. S. Batterham and R. F. Lowe, unpublished results). If this range in values could be shown to be related to the range in lysine availability in MMs and MBMs for pigs, then the technique would be suitable for predicting availability.Lysine availability for pigs may also be determined with slope-ratio assays using rats (Batterham et al. 1984). However, this work has shown that the technique only has application for some meals (cottonseed, soya-bean and sunflower meals) but not others (lupin-seed meal). Thus there is a need to determine if the rat assay is applicable with MMs and MBMs for pigs.With chicks, lysine availability in the same sample of MBM was 0.86 (Major & Batterham, 1981) indicating that chicks were more efficient in utilizing lysine in MBM than the pig. There was also closer agreement between the chick value and the indirect-FDNB E. s. BATTERHAM A N D O T H E R Slysine assay (0.84). However, there is a need to examine a wider range of indirect-FDNB values in MMs and MBMs in order to assess the applicability of this technique for estimating lysine availability for chicks.Processing conditions for blood meals have also been shown to affect total and chemical-'available' (direct-FDNB assay) lysine (Waibel et al. 1977) with ring-dried material being of higher quality than batch-dried material. However, the relevance of chemical estimates for 'availability' in blood meal for pigs needs to be assessed.The present paper reports experiments that were conducted with pigs, rats and chicks to determine the availability of lysine in four MMs, four MBMs and two blood meals. The MMs and MBMs were selected to include meals of both low-and high-bone content and covered the no...

1. The availability of lysine in seven vegetable protein concentrates was determined using the slope-ratio assay with growing pigs and rats and with two chemical techniques.2. With pigs, estimates of availability were lower using carcass compared to live-weight values, but there was no consistent effect of including food intake in the criterion of response. Availability estimates, using food conversion efficiency on a carcass basis were (proportion of total) linseed meal -0.23, lupin-seed meal 0.74, rapeseed meal no. 1 0.97, no. 2 0.77, sunfiower meal no. 1 0.59, no. 2 0.66, no. 3 0-54.3. Availability estimates for lysine with rats were also lower using carcass compared to live-weight values. Estimates based on food conversion efficiency were higher than those based on weight gain. Availability estimates in lupin-seed meal and sunflower meals were in general agreement with the pig estimates, whilst that with linseed meal was considerably higher (0.82). Assays were not conducted with rapeseed meal due to problems of food rejection with this meal. Batterham et al. (1979) reported the development of a slope-ratio assay for available lysine in protein concentrates with growing pigs. Availability estimates using this assay indicated substantial differences in the availability of lysine in cottonseed meal (0.43) and meatand-bone meal (0.49) compared to fish meal (0.89), skim-milk powder (0.85) and soya-bean meal (0-84). These. differences were also detected by slope-ratio assays with rats but not by the chemical Silcock available-lysine assay (Roach et al. 1967) nor by the direct fluorodinitrobenzene (FDNB) available-lysine test (Carpenter, 1960). This paper reports the determination of available lysine in a series of vegetable protein concentrates using the slope-ratio assay with pigs and rats. The protein concentrates were also analysed with the Silcock (Roach et al. 1967) and direct FDNB (Carpenter, 1960) available-lysine assays to determine if these techniques were applicable in these meals. Previous work (Batterham et al. 1979) had also indicated that slope-ratio values based on carcass values were more applicable with pigs than those based on live-weight values; this aspect was also examined for slope-ratio assays with rats.

1. The digestible energy content of eight samples of barley, sorghum, wheat, weather-damaged wheat and wheat by-products produced from different regions of eastern Australia was determined using growing pigs. The relationships between physical and chemical composition and digestible energy content of the meals were studied. 2. The mean and range in digestible energy (MJ/kg, air-dry basis) were, respectively: barleys 12-7 (124 to 13-0), sorghums 14-4 (14-1 to 14-9), wheats 14-4 (14-0 to 15-0), weather-damaged wheats 14-1 (12-9 to 14-9) and wheat by-products 12-4 (10-9 to 14-1). 3. All possible regressions of digestible energy content against density, gross energy and proximate analyses of the meals were screened to select useful relationships. These screens indicated that, with the exception of wheat by-products, the majority of variation in digestible energy was due to gross energy and fibre. For wheat byproducts, a combination of density and fibre accounted for most of the variation. 4. Prediction equations had the most application to weather-damaged wheats, wheat by-products and a combination of all samples. 5. There was no indication that neutral-detegent fibre was superior to crude fibre as a predictor of digestible energy in cereals for pigs.

Several studies illustrated that the structure of feed, i.e., the particle size, particle-size distribution, and the physical form of the diet, affects the avian gastrointestinal function and health leading to changes in productive performance. However, investigations concerning the effects of feeding differently processed diets on laying hens are limited and primarily concentrated on bird performance. The current study examines the effect of feed processing on the gastrointestinal morphology and on the jejunal glucose transport of laying hens. In 8 replicates, a total of 384 hens (Lohmann Brown) aged 20 wk were randomly allocated to 8 different groups and fed over a period of 21 d in a 3-factorial design. Diets differed in 1) grinding method, either hammer or roller mill; 2) physical form, either mash or expandate; and 3) particle size, either coarsely or finely ground. During the experimental trial, the laying performance of each feeding group was recorded daily and the feed intake and BW determined weekly. After slaughtering, the weights of the pancreas, proventriculus, gizzard, and small intestine were measured. Villus lengths and crypt depths of the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum were determined. The jejunal electrogenic glucose transport was studied in Ussing chambers. Hens that received mash instead of expandate had higher proventriculus (P = 0.011), gizzard (P < 0.001), and pancreas (P = 0.019) weights, whereas the feeding of coarsely instead of finely ground diets led to higher gizzard weights (P < 0.001). Mash-fed hens showed longer duodenal (P < 0.001) and shorter ileal villi (P = 0.047) and increased duodenal villus height-to-crypt depth ratios (P < 0.001) than those given the expandate. Mash-fed hens had higher glucose transport rates than expandate-fed hens (P < 0.001). In conclusion, the feeding of coarsely ground as well as mash diets had stimulating effects on the development of the gastrointestinal organs. Moreover, the feeding of mash influenced the intestinal microstructure of the epithelium that was accompanied by higher glucose transport capacities.

I. Two experiments were conducted to assess the nutritional value of lupin (Lupinus albus)-seed meal for growing pigs. In the first, the availability of lysine was assessed using slope-ratio analysis. In the second, the effects of autoclaving lupin seeds and formulating the diets on the basis of estimated digestible or net energy were assessed.2. In the first experiment, the availability of lysine in three samples of lupin-seed meal was compared with that in meat-and-bone meal and soya-bean meal. Availability of lysine in the five protein concentrates, using food conversion efficiency on a carcass basis as the criterion of response, was (proportion of total): lupin-seed meal no. 1 0.44, no. 2 0.57, no. 3 0.53, meat-and-bone meal 0.42, soya-bean meal 0.80.3. Availability estimates, based on protein deposited:food intake, were: lupin-seed meal no. 1 0.82, no. 2 0.73, no. 3 0.70, meat-and-bone meal 0.27, soya-bean meal 0.77. These estimates had higher standard deviations than those based on carcass response.4. Regressing the measures of response v. lysine intake resulted in estimates of availability similar to, or higher than, the slope-ratio analysis but was associated with greater statistical invalidity and higher standard deviations.5. The proportion of energy retained in the carcasses was unaffected by the inclusion levels of lysine or soya-bean meal. Energy retention was depressed (P < 0.05) with the three lupin-seed meals and the meat-and-bone meal.6. In the second experiment, the response of pigs given a diet containing lupin-seed meal was inferior, on a carcass basis (P < 0.05), to that of pigs given a diet containing soya-bean meal formulated to similar total lysine and digestible energy contents. 7. The addition of soya-bean oil to the diet containing lupin-seed meal, to equalize the estimated net energy of the diet to that of the diet containing soya-bean meal, depressed protein deposition (P < 0.05) and increased fat deposition (P < 0.05), indicating that energy was not limiting the growth of pigs given the lupin-seed-meal diet.8. Autoclaving the lupin-seed at 121" for 5 min had no effect on the growth of pigs, indicating that the low availability of lysine was not due to the presence of heat-labile anti-nutritional factors.Cultivars of Lupinus angustifolius have been shown to have a low lysine availability (0.55; proportion of total) for growing pigs (Batterham et al. 1984). This low availability is specific to pigs as it is high in rats ( The availa8ility of lysine in cultivars of Lupinus albus has not been determined. The ileal digestibility of lysine is high (about 0.82;Taverner, 1982). However, high rates of inclusion of L. albus in diets for growing pigs have been associated with depressed pig performance (Batterham, 1979;King, 1981;Taverner, 1982). It is not known whether this is due to low amino acid availability or to the presence of anti-nutritional factors. Although L. albus is a manganese accumulator, high Mn levels do not appear to be the reason for the growth depression associated with its...