Ruminal Microbial Degradation of Individual Amino Acids from Heat-Treated Soyabean Meal and Corn Gluten Meal in Continuous Culture

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Dietary rumen undegradable protein provides almost half of the amino acids available for absorption. Current feeding systems assume that the amino acid profile of a protein reaching the small intestine is similar to that of the original protein. However, the results from the present experiment confirm that the degradability of individual amino acids from heat-processed soybean meal and corn gluten meal was different between protein sources and among amino acids within each protein source. The degradability of essential amino acids in general, and that of lysine in particular, was higher in both protein supplements, and the degradability of methionine was also higher in corn gluten meal compared with the average degradability of amino acids. Therefore, the flow of essential amino acids, lysin and methionine may be overestimated. Therefore, the results suggest the need to include the degradability of individual amino acids in precision feeding strategies. ABSTRACT: Eight dual-flow continuous culture fermenters were used in three periods to study the effects of diets containing heat-treated soyabean meal (HSBM) or corn gluten meal (CGM) on ruminal microbial fermentation and the degradation of individual amino acids (AA). Treatments were a mix of non-protein nitrogen (N; urea and tryptone) that were progressively substituted (0, 33, 67 and 100%) for HSBM or CGM. Ruminal escape of AA was calculated with the slope ratio technique. Total volatile fatty acids (95.0 mM) and molar proportions (mol/100 mol) of acetate (59.3), propionate (21.8) and butyrate (10.5) were not affected by the treatments. As the level of HSBM or CGM increased, the concentration of ammonia-N and the degradation of protein decreased (p < 0.01), and the flows of nonammonia and dietary N increased (p < 0.01) quadratically. Compared with HSBM, CGM provided the highest flow (g/d) of total (20.6 vs. 18.3, p < 0.01), essential (9.04 vs. 8.25, p < 0.04) and nonessential (11.5 vs. 10.0, p < 0.01) AA, and increased linearly (p < 0.01) as the level of supplemental protein increased. Ruminal degradation of essential AA was higher (p < 0.04) than nonessential AA in CGM, but not in HSBM. Degradation of lysine was higher (p < 0.01) in both proteins, and degradation of methionine was higher in CGM. Ruminal degradation of individual AAs differ within and between protein sources and needs to be considered in precision feeding models.