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T H E E F F E C T OF ADDED SUCROSE ON T H E D I G E S T I B I L I T Y
OF P R O T E I N AND F I B E R BY SWINE
C. N. SKIPI~A~!S, 1 R. G. WAgNeR AND J. K. LOOSLI
Procedure
Four barrows, two Yorkshires weighing 215 and 208 lb. and two
Berkshires weighing 164 and 154 lb. were used in 16 digestion trials.
Table 1 shows the plan of the study and the feed intakes during the
four experimental periods. The design was a modified latin square suggested by Henderson (1955) and allowed for an estimation of the
carry over effects.
During the basal periods the larger pigs were fed a constant amount
of 1800 gin. daily of barley, ground to a fine meal, supplemented with
vitamins and minerals, and the smaller pigs received 1600 gin. daily.
Table grade sucrose was added at a level of 16% during the other
periods without lowering the barley allowances. These levels of intake
1 Present address: Department of Animal Husbandry, University of Thessalonike, Greece.
2 The assistance of H. W. Seeley is acknowledged for helpful suggestions in carrying out the
experiment and in reading the manuscript.
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56
S K I P I T A R I S , W A R N E R AND
LOOSLI
1. T H E F E E D I N G S C H E D U L E O F P I G S R E C E I V I N G G R O U N D
BARLEY WITH AND WITHOUT ADDED SUCROSE
Feed intake, grams per day
Period I
Pig No. 9
1u
2B
3Y
4B
Barley b Sucrose
1800
1600
I800
1600
288
256
Period I[
Period I I I
Barley
Sucrose
Barley
1800
1600
1800
1600
288
1800
1600
1800
1600
256
Period IV
Sucrose
Barley
Sucrose
288
256
1800
1600
1800
1600
256
288
Berkshire.
supplemented with vitamins and minerals to furnish the amounts
(1953). Zinc was added at a level of 4 ppm of the barley, the
10.90% and 4.91% of crude protein and crude fiber, respectively.
and 5:30 p.m. The feed was mixed into a thick slop and water was
allowed ad lib. after feeding. The cages permitted the complete collection of feces without contamination with urine. The feces were collected
twice daily, weighed and a 7% aliquot placed in a tightly closed glass
jar with 1% of thymol and stored at approximately 40 ~ F. At the end
of the collection period, the daily aliquots were composited, mixed and
a subsample used for chemical analyses. Nitrogen was determined on
the fresh feces by the Kieldahl method. Crude fiber was determined by
the A.O.A.C. method.
Bacterial protein in the feces was determined by a modification of
the method of Mattill and Hawk (1911) using a series of fractional
sedimentations in a high-speed centrifuge. Dilute HC1 solution (0.2%)
was used to free the bacteria of fecal residues as described in detail
by Skipitaris (1956). The crude protein fractions studied are described
in table 2.
Counts were made of the total fecal bacteria by the nigrosine slide
57
Approx.
No. of gs?
Centrifugation
time
Microscopic
observation
min.
1
230
10800
Fecal particles
protozoa, few bacteria
20
Bacteria, traces of
fecal debris
Supernantant
From no. 2
a NX6.25.
b No. of times gravity.
technique described by Gall et al. (1947, 1949). A 0.01 ml. sample of
the carefully mixed bacterial suspension was transferred by a Breed
pipette to a slide and mixed with a 3 ram. loopful of a s a t u r a t e d methyl
alcohol solution of nigrosine. T h e mixture was spread evenly on the
slide and dried on a hot plate. Counts were made of 20 fields on each
of two slides made from duplicate samples from each period. T h e
bacterial counts, the slide area and volume, the volume of bacterial
suspension and its relation to total feces being known, it was possible
to estimate the total bacteria excreted on each diet.
T h e method used in calculating the analysis of variance is shown
in table 3.
Total
Pigs
Periods
Treatments, direct
Treatments, residual
Error
d.f.
SS
15
3
3
1
1
7
58
Protein
Crude fiber
1Y
2B
3Y
4B
Av.
76.8
75.6
77.8
76.0
76.6
16.4
15.0
17.8
16.5
16.4
Barley+Sucrose
Protein
73.0
70.8
74.2
72.1
72.5**
Crude fiber
11.0
9,2
10,6
10.0
10,2"*
Corrected
protein ~
74.0
72.4
76.2
74.0
74.2**
sugar ration and these bacteria carried additional nitrogen into the
fecal excretions.
Presented also in table 4 are coefficients for protein digestibility of
the barley plus sucrose ration corrected for the lowered digestibility of
crude fiber. This calculation was based on the assumption that the
increase in fecal crude fiber accompanying sucrose feeding, resulted in
a proportionate increase in fecal protein. The corrected protein digestion
coefficient thus reflects the maximum theoretical amount of fecal protein
which could have resulted from the increased excretion of "fiberbound" protein. The corrected digestion coefficients remain lower than
those for the protein in barmy fed alone, supporting the view that
increased bacterial growth on the barley plus sucrose effected a lowered
apparent digestibility of dietary nitrogen by the pig.
The average crude protein contents of the various fecal fractions are
shown in table 5. For each pig, the feces contained more nitrogen when
the ration contained added sucrose. The differences were highly significant ( P < 0 . 0 1 ) for each fraction of the fecal crude protein as well
as for the total fecal protein. I t is possible that a portion of the residual
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and soluble protein may have been the result of an increase in metabolic
fecal nitrogen as a result of sucrose feeding. The highly soluble nature
of the sucrose would suggest that this effect does not exist.
Bacterial counts made on the fecal samples by the nigrosine slide
technique gave larger total numbers of bacteria excreted on the diets
containing sucrose than on barley alone. The average values were
156 X 1012 on barley plus sugar and 126 X 101~ on barley. In every
instance the feces contained more bacteria when sugar was fed. Although
the counting techniques may be less accurate than one might desire it
T A B L E 5. A V E R A G E C R U D E P R O T E I N C O N T E N T OF F E C A L F R A C T I O N S
OF PIGS R E C E I V I N G R A T I O N S W I T H A N D W I T H O U T
ADDED SUCROSE
Crude protein fraction ~
Pig No.
Ration
1Y
Barley
Barley+sugar
Barley
Barley+sugar
Barley
Barley+sugar
Barley
Barley+sugar
Barley
Barley+sugar
2B
3Y
4B
Av.
Residue
Total
protein ~
Bacterial
Soluble
gm.
gm.
gm.
gm.
80
86
74
82
90
102
80
84
81
88
144
166
132
156
136
150
136
154
137
157
94
118
96
120
74
100
79
102
86
110
318
370
302
358
300
352
295
340
303
355
a NX6.25.
is interesting that the total bacterial counts support the other data in
suggesting that the addition of 16 3 of sugar to barley increases the
fecal bacteria and at the same time lowers utilization of both the crude
protein and the crude fiber.
I t is evident from the data that the addition of sugar to the ration of
pigs lowers the digestibility of both the protein and the crude fiber in
about the same way as is true for ruminants. The decreases in the
digestion coefficients, appear to be similar in magnitude to those reported
for ruminants. Briggs and Helter (1943) observed that 25~o of cane
molasses added to a ration for sheep lowered the digestibility of the
crude protein by 6.5%. Hamilton (1942), using sheep, obtained depressions of 12 3 for crude protein and 27 3 for crude fiber in a ration
containing up to 30 3 of glucose.
From a practical standpoint, the depressed digestibility of crude fiber
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61
Gall, L. S., C. N. Stark and J. K. Loosli. 1947. The isolation and preliminary study
of some physiological characteristics of the predominating flora from the
rumen of cattle and sheep. J. Dairy Sci. 30:891.
Gall, L. S., W. Burroughs, P. Gerlaugh and B. H. Edgington. 1949. Special methods
for rumen bacterial studies in the field. J. Animal Sci. 8:433.
Hamilton, T. S. 1942. The effect of added glucose upon the digestibility of protein
and fiber in rations for sheep. J. Nutr. 23 : 101.
Henderson, C. R. 1955. Personal Communication.
Mattill, H. A. and R. B. Hawk. 1911. A method for the quantitative determination
of fecal bacteria. J. Exp. ivied. 14:433.
Mitchell, H. H. 1942. The evaluation of feeds on the basis of digestible and metabolizable nutrients. J. Animal Sci. 1 : 159.
Skipitaris, C. N. 1953. Digestibility and nutritive value of carob pods in farm
animals. Dept. Animal Hus., University Thessalonike, Greece.
Skipitaris, C. N. 1956. The effect of added soluble carbohydrate upon the digestibility of protein and fiber in rations for swine. Ph.D. Thesis. Cornell University,
Ithaca, N. u