The influence of wheat bran and sugar-beet pulp on the digestibility of dietary components in a cereal-based pig diet.

The influence of added wheat bran or dried sugar-beet pulp on the apparent digestion of dietary components was examined in pigs fitted with duodenal and terminal ileal cannulas. The pigs were fed a basal cereal-based diet alone or substituted at a level of 33% by wheat bran or beet pulp. Neither fibrous component influenced the digestibility of starch, but inclusion of beet pulp decreased dry matter content and digestibility of ash, protein and fat in the ileum and fecal digestibility of fat. Between 11 and 37% of the nonstarch polysaccharides were degraded anterior to the ileum, and the percentage of beet pulp diet nonstarch polysaccharides that was soluble increased from 11% in the feed to 35% at the ileum. Xylose and glucose were the least degraded nonstarch polysaccharide residues in all three diets, and the non-starch polysaccharide residues varied in susceptibility to breakdown within and between diets, depending on the composition of the fiber. Almost 50% of the beet pulp, but less than 20% of the wheat bran, was degraded in the large intestine. The inclusion of wheat bran and beet pulp increased fecal output by 127 and 56%, respectively.