Digestibility of carbohydrates in growing pigs: a comparison between the T-cannula and the steered ileo-caecal valve cannula.

We compared the determination of ileal and total tract digestibility of carbohydrates in five experimental diets using a double 5 x 5 Latin square design involving a total of 10 cannulated pigs; half of the pigs were equipped with a simple T-cannula and the other half with steered ileo-caecal valve (SICV)-cannula. The diets consisted of nitrogen-free mixture and soya bean meal, sunflower meal, peas or rape seed cake diluted to about 180 g/kg DM protein with the nitrogen-free mixture. There was no significant difference in the digestibility values using the two types of cannulas with regard to organic matter, sugars (sum of glucose, fructose and sucrose), alpha-galactosides (sum of raffinose, stachyose and verbascose), starch, cellulose, total non-cellulosic polysaccharides (NCP) and insoluble NCP constituents. The digestibility values for the NCP residues arabinose and galactose, however, were estimated higher but with a lower variability with the SICV-cannula compared with the T-cannula. The type of cannula did no influence the estimation of the total tract digestibility for any of the major dietary constituents, but the total tract digestibility was slightly more variable when the pigs were equipped with the SICV-cannula compared with the T-cannula. There was no difference in the ileal digestibility of sugars, alpha-galactosides, cellulose and the NCP arabinose and uronic acids residues among the experimental diets, while the ileal digestibility of starch and the remaining NCP sugar residues varied between diets. The total tract digestibility was complete for sugars, alpha-galactosides and starch, whereas the digestibility of the cell wall constituents varied in accordance with the polymeric composition of the cell walls. It was concluded that ileal digesta samples from SICV-cannula are more homogenous than those from the T-cannula. In cases where the precision of each determination is crucial, the SICV-cannula should be the option.