Apparent digestibility of plant meal subjected to antinutrient removal in diets for South American catfish

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate the apparent digestibility of plant‑protein meals, subjected or not to antinutrient extraction chemical treatment, in diets for South American catfish (Rhamdia quelen). Three test diets were formulated with protein sources in commercial form without treatment – SNT, soybean meal; CNT, canola meal; and GNT, sunflower meal – and three diets were subjected to treatment for reduction of phytic acid, total phenols, and tannins: ST, treated soybean meal; CT, treated canola meal; and GT, treated sunflower meal. The treatments CNT, CT, GNT, and GT had lower dry matter apparent digestibility. The treatment ST had higher crude protein digestibility than CT and CNT, but it did not differ from the other treatments. GNT, GT, and CNT treatments showed the lowest organic matter digestibility. Antinutrient removal does not affect the apparent digestibility of crude protein, dry matter, and organic matter of soybean and sunflower meal, but improves the dry matter digestibility of canola meal.