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Purine nitrogen index, a potentially new parameter for rapid food evaluation in ruminants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2018

X. B. Chen  and
M. C. N. Jayasuriya
X. B. Chen
Affiliation:
Rowett Research Institute, Bucksburn, Aberdeen AB21 9SB
M. C. N. Jayasuriya
Affiliation:
Animal Production and Health Section, International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, Austria
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Extract

Ruminant production is an important sector of livestock agriculture. However, compared with simple-stomached animals, the conversion of plant material to animal products is low in efficiency and gives rise to large amounts of waste to the environment. Improvement in animal performance in the past has been based largely on greater input into the production system, rather than on a better efficiency of food conversion. With the increasing focus on resource efficiency and environmental protection, one important feature of future production systems will be to maximize efficiency and minimize waste. To aid the development and management of such systems, rapid food evaluation techniques are desired. In this paper, we propose that the measurement of purine derivative nitrogen as a proportion of total nitrogen in the urine, could provide a rapid indication of the efficiency with which food nitrogen is converted to microbial protein.

Type
Complex rumen transformations
Information
BSAP Occasional Publication , Volume 22: In vitro techniques for measuring nutrient supply to ruminants , 1998 , pp. 151 - 153
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1998

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References

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