Comparison of amino acid digestibility using the ileal digesta from growing chickens and cannulated adult cockerels.

Meat-and-bone meal (MBM), which had been heated (150 degrees C) for 0, 1.5, 3 or 5 h, was used along with an indigestible marker in four diets which were fed to young growing chickens and adult cockerels fitted with ileal cannulae. The ileal digesta from each group of birds were sampled and the apparent amino acid digestibilities of the four diets containing MBM were determined. The apparent digestibility values from growing chickens were higher (P less than 0.05) than those from cannulated cockerels. Differences in apparent digestibility of amino acids between diets as a result of heat treatment were consistent for all amino acids when comparing both techniques, with the exception of glutamic acid and arginine.