NUTRITIONAL AND MONETARY EVALUATION OF DAMAGED LENTILS FOR GROWING PIGS AND EFFECTS OF ANTIBIOTIC SUPPLEMENTS

Abstract

Lentils (Lens culinaris) damaged by frost and ascochyta blight were nutritionally evaluated in digestibility and feeding trials with 23- to 100-kg specific pathogen-free (SPF) pigs, using 0, 10, 20 and 30% dietary levels. Cross-treatments included carbadox and oxytetracycline antibiotic supplements and an antibiotic-free control diet. Neither average daily gain (ADG) nor feed:gain ratio (F:G) was affected by replacing equivalent amounts of 1:1 soybean meal:canola meal protein with lentil protein. Antibiotic supplements did not improve ADG and adversely affected F:G. ADG ranges for all diets were 0.76–0.78 kg for 23- to 57-kg pigs and 0.82–0.86 kg for 23- to 100-kg. Digestibility of crude protein (CP) in lentils was 72%, gross energy 78%, and non-CP gross energy 81%, indicating a possible trypsin inhibitor effect on CP digestibility. A monetary assessment of lentils based on a modified Petersen method, using barley and soybean meal for establishing the value of digestible CP and non-CP digestible energy, showed lentils to be worth from 10 to 50% more than good quality barley, depending on the CP content of the lentils and the relative monetary values of barley and soybean meal. Key words: Lentils, low quality, pigs, feeding value, digestibility, composition