Analyses of degradation products from lipid and protein hydrolyses in the small intestine of broiler chickens fed on maize-based diets containing guar gum, or wheat-based diets

1. Three maize diets containing graded levels (0, 0.1, 0.3%) of guar gum and two wheat diets differing in their in vitro viscosities were fed to male broiler chickens (7 to 23 d) for measurements of growth performance and analyses of degradation products from lipid and protein hydrolyses in the small intestine of broiler chickens. Analyses of degradation products were conducted to define which step (hydrolysis or absorption) was most involved in the negative effects of the digesta viscosity on lipid and protein digestibilities. The experiment was also carried out to examine whether effects of wheats could be explained in terms of intestinal viscosity alone. 2. The intestinal viscosities with wheat diets were within the range of those observed with the three maize diets. The correlations between in vivo and in vitro viscosities were higher with real than with potential applied viscosity of diets, both in jejunum and ileum. 3. The mean gain : food ratio observed with wheat diets was lower (P<0.05) than with maize diets despite lower (P<0.05) mean intestinal viscosities in birds given the wheat than given the maize diets. This shows that factors different from intestinal viscosity were also involved in the negative effects of wheats. 4. Distributions of nitrogen compounds in digesta were characterised by low proportions of compounds with high molecular weight (>12,000). For all classes of nitrogen compounds, the contents measured in digesta dry matter did not differ between chickens fed with or without guar gum. 5. Distributions of lipid classes in both jejunum and ileum were characterised by a large proportion of free fatty acids (FFA) and very few triglycerides (TG). In the ileum, FFA and TG contents were both positively correlated with supernatant viscosity, but the slope for FFA content was 35 times higher than for TG. In these relationships, there was no difference between maize and wheat diets. 6. It is concluded that absorption was the main step involved in the lipid digestibility reduction due to intestinal viscosity. For proteins, the most important step (hydrolysis or absorption) involved in decreased digestibility due to intestinal viscosity was not clearly identified.