Article

Evaluation of the Nutrient Digestibility at Each Age in Dogs Diet by In vitro and In vivo Methods

Kyeongho Jeon1, Jihwan Lee2, Minho Song3, Kihyun Kim4, Jo Minseok5, Seyeon Chang1, Dongcheol Song1, Sehyun Park1, Hyuck Kim1, Hyeunbum Kim6,*, Jinho Cho1,**
Author Information & Copyright
1Department of animal science, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju 28644, Korea.
2Swine Science Division, National Institute of Animal Science, Rural Development Administration, Cheonan 31000, Korea.
3Division of Animal and Dairy Science, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Korea.
4National Institute of Animal Science, Rural Development Administration, Wanju 55365, Korea.
5Central Research Institute, Woosung Feed Co., Ltd, Daejeon 34379, Korea.
6Department of Animal Biotechnology, Dankook University, Cheonan 31116, Korea.
*Corresponding Author: Hyeunbum Kim, Department of Animal Biotechnology, Dankook University, Cheonan 31116, Korea, Republic of. E-mail: hbkim@dankook.ac.kr.
**Corresponding Author: Jinho Cho, Department of animal science, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju 28644, Korea, Republic of. E-mail: jinhcho@cbnu.ac.kr.

© Copyright 2024 Korean Society of Animal Science and Technology. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate <italic>in vitro</italic> predictions of digestibility at each age (puppy, adult, and senior) in dogs of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), gross energy (GE), crude fiber (CF), and ether extract (EE) using dog diets. First, to determine the digestibility of dog diets using pepsin and pancreatin incubations, conduct the <italic>in vitro</italic> method. Later, 18 mixed-sex beagles were used in this experiment to compare <italic>in vivo</italic> digestibility. Beagles are divided into 3 groups according to their age and body weight: six puppies (under 1-year-old; 6.21 ± 0.56 kg), six adult dogs (2 to 7 years old; 8.16 ± 0.64 kg), and six senior dogs (over 8 years old; 6.95 ± 1.39 kg). Except for DM in puppies and adult dogs, in all cases, <italic>in vitro</italic> digestibility values were higher than <italic>in vivo</italic> digestibility values (p &lt; 0.05). In puppies, there were strong relationships for DM and GE with r<sup>2</sup> values of 0.95 and 0.84, respectively, between <italic>in vitro</italic> and <italic>in vivo</italic> digestibility. Also, in adult dogs, there were strong relationships for DM and GE with r<sup>2</sup> values of 0.97 and 0.84, respectively, between <italic>in vitro</italic> and <italic>in vivo</italic> digestibility. However, in senior dogs, there was a lower relationship for DM, OM, CP, GE, CF, and EE with r<sup>2</sup> values of 0.18, 0.42, 0.01, 0.02, 0.11, and 0.04, respectively, between <italic>in vitro</italic> and <italic>in vivo</italic> digestibility. In conclusion, <italic>in vitro</italic>, the prediction of nutrient digestibility of DM and GE in puppies and adult dogs seems to have significant potential for practical application. However, additional research is needed to compare senior dogs with the <italic>in vitro</italic> method.

Keywords: in vitro digestibility; in vivo digestibility; dog; age