The effect of increasing inclusion of lucerne leaf meal in a barley-based diet on the partition of digestion and on nutrient utilization in pigs

The partition of apparent preileal and postileal digestion of a barley-based diet with increasing inclusion of lucerne leaf meal (LLM; 0, 5, 10 and 20%) was studied in a 4 × 4 change-over experiment with ileal cannulated growing pigs. There was a significant increase in the ileal flow and total tract excretion of nutrients and energy when the inclusion level of LLM was increased. This was more pronounced on the ileal flow of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM) and dietary fibre (DF) than on the total tract flow. With increasing inclusion of LLM in the diet, the ileal and total tract digestibility of DM and OM and energy were significantly reduced while, in contrast, the digestibilities of crude protein and DF were non-significantly affected. The proportion (% of total tract digestibility) of preileal digestibility of LLM was 35, 43, 25 and 41 for DM, OM, DF and energy respectively, while the digestion of CP and crude fat was almost completed at the terminal ileum. There was a significant reduction in the dietary content of digestible and metabolizable energy with increasing inclusion of LLM in the diet.