Abstract #M14

# M14
Ruminal degradation and intestinal digestibility of hydrolyzed feather meal with and without blood.
K. Buse*1, D. Morris1, P. Kononoff1, 1University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE.

Hydrolyzed feather meal (HFM) is a readily available, high protein feedstuff that can be used as a cost-effective dairy feedstuff. Because the production process may vary, the chemical composition of HFM may also vary. Additionally, some processes may incorporate blood into the final product. The objective of this study was to evaluate the ruminal and intestinal digestibility of HFM originating from processes that differ in their inclusion of blood. Ten samples of HFM, 5 without blood (FM) and 5 with blood (FMB), were collected from 10 different production plants across the United States. Two multiparous lactating Holstein cows fitted with rumen and proximal duodenal cannulas were used to quantify rumen undegradable protein (RUP), and RUP digestibility (dRUP) by employing the mobile bag technique. Approximately 1.5 g of each was weighed into 10 N-free nylon bags with a mean pore size of 50 μm and a dimension of 5 × 10 cm and incubated in the rumen for 16 h. A subset of rumen bags were then used to determine RUP. The remaining bags were placed in a pepsin-HCl bath for 3 h and then inserted in the duodenal cannula of each cow. Bags were recovered in the feces and used to quantify dRUP. Data were analyzed as a complete randomized design to test the effect of blood inclusion on RUP and dRUP of HFM. The CP content was similar (P = 0.57) between FMB and FM averaging 94.5 ± 0.90%. The RUP content of FMB tended (P = 0.13) to be greater than FM (81.6 vs. 74.1 ± 3.19%). The dRUP was not different (P = 0.77) averaging 61.1 ± 2.36% across treatments. There was also no difference detected (P = 0.40) between FMB and FM in total-tract DM (P = 0.40) and CP (P = 0.52) digestibility averaging 74.2 ± 3.34 and 69.4 ± 4.07%. Results of this study suggest that although there are modest differences in chemical composition in hydrolyzed feather meal associated with the inclusion of blood, very little differences are observed in either ruminal or intestinal digestion of protein.

Key Words: intestinal digestibility, rumen degradation, rumen undegraded protein