The digestibility of energy, nitrogen and non-starch polysaccharides (NSP) by growing pigs from semi-purified diets containing eight different sources of NSP at four levels of inclusion

Abstract

There have been a number of trials with growing pigs where the digestibility of NSP for a few feeds of varying NSP content have been measured (Graham et al 1986, Longland and Low, 1988). However, there have been few systematic studies where the digestibility of many different types of NSP have been compared at different inclusion levels so that the animals response to each type of NSP can be evaluated, and the effects of NSP source and level on energy and nitrogen (N) digestibility can be assessed. Therefore in the current study the digestibility of NSP, energy and N of semi-purified diets each containing one of eight botanically diverse sources of NSP at a range of inclusion levels was measured.