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

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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