Nutritive Value and Digestibility Parameters of Starchy Feeds Assayed, Using in vivo and in vitro Methods

This research was planned to evaluate the nutritive value of some starchy feeds including wheat grain, wheat flour, starch grades 1 and 2 through in vivo, in vitro and gas test methods. The first experiment was done through an employment of 4 Maku-ii rams with 43.2±1.4 Kg of body weight in a completely randomized design and in a change over design arrangement. The chemical compositions of test diets and of feces were proximately analyzed while the feces starch’ concentration being determined through Entrone method. Digestibility coefficients of DM, OM, CP, CF, NFE for wheat grain and for wheat flour were 68.91, 72.97, 71.10, 60.20, 79.33, 77.67, 80.29, 72.17, 62.20 and 84.02%, respectively. Digestibility coefficients of DM for starches grade 1 and 2 were 98.26 and 94.62%, respectively. The mentioned values for digestibility coefficients of DM in the second experiment (in vitro) were 54.9, 62.27, 67.74, 69.76, 82.78, 84.38, 92.61, and 90.84%. These values were highly correlated with those resulted from the first experiment(r>0.8). In the third experiment, gas production, OM digestibility and short chain fatty acid concentration increased respectively in wheat grain, wheat flour, starch grade 2 and 1. The results obtained from the three experiments in this study found to be highly correlated with each other.