An In Vitro Approach to Assess Nutrient Utilization of Brewers Dried Grains and Effects of Supplemental β-Glucanase on Swine Feed Ingredients

Two experiments were conducted to determine In Vitro Dry Matter Disappearance (IVDMD) of Brewers Dried Grains (BDG) and corn Distillers Dried Grains with Solubles (DDGS) and to investigate effects of supplemental β-glucanase on the IVDMD in barley, BDG and corn DDGS for pigs. In experiment 1, the IVDMD in corn DDGS and two BDG sources produced from Cameroon and Republic of Korea were determined. A three-step IVDMD procedure was employed to simulate digestion of nutrients in the test ingredients by pigs. The digestion 3 steps were for the stomach, the small intestine and the large intestine of pigs. All digestion procedures were conducted in triplicate. The IVDMD in corn DDGS and two BDG sources from Cameroon and Korea was 62.2, 49.2 and 41.0% (±0.6; p<0.001), respectively. The IVDMD in corn DDGS was greater (p<0.05) than that in BDG sources. The BDG from Cameroon had greater (p<0.05) IVDMD than the BDG from Korea. In experiment 2, barley, BDG from Korea and corn DDGS samples were supplemented with 1% β-glucanase (100,000 unit/kg diet) or 1% corn starch. The same IVDMD procedure was used as in experiment 1. While supplemental β-glucanase tended to increase (84.2±0.6 vs. 82.3±0.6; p = 0.071) IVDMD in barley, the supplemental enzyme did not affect IVDMD in BDG and corn DDGS. In conclusion, in vitro utilization of nutrients in BDG was less efficient than that in corn DDGS and supplemental β-glucanase improves the utilization of nutrients in barley.