NUTRITIVE VALUE OF DIFFERENT ANIMAL PROTEIN SOURCES IN WEANLING WISTAR RATS

Abstract

The main protein sources human diets include the beef, fish and chickens meat. These sources are often consumed indiscriminately without any regard to their relative nutritive value. Hence, the nutritional quality of different animal protein sources in human and animal diets was assessed in this study, using weanling Wistar rats. Rats (n=25) weighing 30g-40g were randomly allotted to five dietary treatments: T1= Caesin-based diet, T2= Nitrogen-Free diet, T3= Beef-based diet, T4= Catfish-based diet, T5= Chicken breast- based diet in a completely randomised design. The diets were fed to respective weanling rats for four weeks, feed and water were offered ad libitum. Daily urine and faecal samples were weighed, and labelled, then stored at 4oC. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and ANOVA at α0.05. Rats on T3 had significantly higher (p<0.05) feed intake (FI) (48.25) than T4 (43.41) and T5 (22.27). Protein intake was lower significantly (p>0.05) in rats on T4 (3.80) Also, rats on T3 (41.01) had higher weight gain than in T4 (23.51), and T5 (15.30). Faecal nitrogen in rats on T3 (2.36), T4 (1.79), and T5 (2.29) were similar (p>0.05). The protein efficiency ratio (PER) was significantly higher (p<0.05) in T4 (6.07) than in other treatments. The NPR was significantly higher (p<0.05) for T1 (3.30), T3 (4.08), and T4 (3.87) than T5 (1.59) and T2 (0.00). The BV was significantly higher (p<0.05) for T1 (0.89) than T3 (0.67), T4 (0.58), and T5 (0.68), but significantly lower (p>0.05) for T2 (0.12). The NPU values for T3 (75.34), T4 (70.12), and T5 (77.43) were similar (p>0.05). Thus, rats on chicken-breast based diets performed best relative to standard casein-based
diets.