Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-vsgnj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-18T23:42:57.728Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Purine nitrogen index, a potentially new parameter for rapid food evaluation in ruminants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2018

X. B. Chen  and
M. C. N. Jayasuriya
X. B. Chen
Affiliation:
Rowett Research Institute, Bucksburn, Aberdeen AB21 9SB
M. C. N. Jayasuriya
Affiliation:
Animal Production and Health Section, International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, Austria
Get access

Extract

Ruminant production is an important sector of livestock agriculture. However, compared with simple-stomached animals, the conversion of plant material to animal products is low in efficiency and gives rise to large amounts of waste to the environment. Improvement in animal performance in the past has been based largely on greater input into the production system, rather than on a better efficiency of food conversion. With the increasing focus on resource efficiency and environmental protection, one important feature of future production systems will be to maximize efficiency and minimize waste. To aid the development and management of such systems, rapid food evaluation techniques are desired. In this paper, we propose that the measurement of purine derivative nitrogen as a proportion of total nitrogen in the urine, could provide a rapid indication of the efficiency with which food nitrogen is converted to microbial protein.

Type
Complex rumen transformations
Information
BSAP Occasional Publication , Volume 22: In vitro techniques for measuring nutrient supply to ruminants , 1998 , pp. 151 - 153
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agricultural Research Council. 1980. The nutrient requirements of ruminant livestock. Technical review by an Agricultural Research Council working party. Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux, Farnham Royal, UK.Google Scholar
Cardenas, D., Newbold, C. J., Galbraith, H., Topps, J. H., Chen, X. B. and Rooke, J. A. 1993. Rice polishing as an alternative to sugar cane molasses as a supplement with urea to low quality forage diets for ruminants. Animal Production 56: 85–92.Google Scholar
Chen, X. B., Abdulrazak, S. A., Shand, W. J. and Ørskov, E. R. 1992b. The effect of supplementing straw with barley or unmolassed sugar beet pulp on microbial protein supply in sheep estimated from urinary purine derivative excretion. Animal Production 55: 413–417.Google Scholar
Chen, X. B., Chen, Y. K., Franklin, M. F., Ørskov, E. R. and Shand, W. J. 1992a. The effect of feed intake and body weight on purine derivative excretion and microbial protein supply in sheep. Journal of Animal Science 70: 1534–1542.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chen, X. B., Hovell, F. D. DeB., Ørskov, E. R. and Brown, D. S. 1990. Excretion of purine derivatives by ruminants: effect of exogenous nucleic acid supply on purine derivative excretion by sheep. British Journal of Nutrition 63: 131–142.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oosting, S. J., Van Bruchem, J. and Chen, X. B. 1995. Intake, digestion and small intestinal protein availability in sheep in relation to ammoniation of wheat straw with or without protein supplementation. British Journal of Nutrition 74: 347–368.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Samaniego, M. A., Chen, X. B., Hovell, F. DeB., MacRae, J. C. and Mayes, R. W. 1997. Comparison of methods for the measurement of microbial protein supply in sheep. Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Science, 1998, p. 125.Google Scholar