Journal of Agriculture & Life Sciences

Evaluation of Arracaciaxanthorrhiza Inclusion as a Starch Source in Diets for Mature Dogs
Alejandro Molina, Alexandra Naranjo, Eduardo Aragón

Abstract
The effects of three extruded diets with different starch sources (brewer’s rice and Arracaciaxanthorrhiza) on dog total tract apparent digestibility response and fecal quality were investigated. The experiment was carried out on twelve mature dogs (17.03 ± 0.1 kg) with four dogs per treatment in a completely randomized design. Treatments were brewer’s rice (control), Arracacia50% of substitution of brewer´s rice (RA) and Arracacia100% of substitution of brewer´s rice (A). All diets were formulated to beisonitrogenous and isoenergetics. The food intake was calculate in reference to ME = 132 x BW0,67. The diets containing Arracacia, with or without brewer’s rice, presented lower (P <0.05) fecal outputs (145,25g and 134,12g) than for control diets (163,11g). Dry Matter (DM), Nitrogen and Fat digestibility was similar (P> 0.05) for three diets. However, the diets containing Arracacia presented the greatest crude fibre and starch digestibility (p < 0.05) than brewer’s rice. Difference in gross energy digestibility was observed for parsnip diets (P< 0.05) than control and RP treatments. Variations in fibre, starch and gross energy digestibility can be explained by differences in chemical composition of each carbohydrate source, specialty the amylose and amyl pectin relation, fibre content and starch granule structure. The results of this study demonstrate that Arracaciaxanthorrhizacan be include in mature dogs diets because the feces quality and total apparent digestibility is similar or greatest than brewer’s rice.

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