Fecal collection methods for the determination of protein digestibility in bullfrogs

• Main Authors: Marta Verardino De Stéfani, Marcelo Maia Pereira, Marcio Roberto Reche, Cleber Fernando Menegasso Mansano
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Federal de Santa Maria 2015-08-01
• Series: Ciência Rural
• Subjects: coeficiente de digestibilidade da proteína; metodologias; nutrição; ranicultura
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0103-84782015000801492&lng=en&tlng=en

Adequate methods for the determination of protein digestibility in bullfrogs are important for the understanding of nutrient utilization. Therefore, this study evaluated two methods of feces collection: intestinal dissection and fecal decantation, using cylindric-conical tanks. Frogs were fed with a commercial diet (45% crude protein) which was ground and supplemented with 0.5% chromium oxide III. The frogs were fasted 48h before force-feeding (5% of the animal's live weight). For the decantation method, the animals were sacrificed 36 h after force-feeding and feces were collected directly from the large intestine. For the sedimentation method, feces were collected when they appeared in the tubes attached to the front end of the cylindric tanks. No significant difference (P>0.05) in the apparent digestibility coefficients of crude protein for dietary was observed between the methods tested (74.0% and 76.4% for the dissection and decantation methods, respectively). In conclusion, both methods can be used for the determination of protein digestibility of bullfrog feeds