Effect of time post-surgery on the measurement of ileal digestibility in ileal rectal anastomosed pigs

The measurement of ileal digestibility of amino acids is recognized to be a valid tool for the estimation of availability of amino acids. One of the techniques used to obtain this measure - ileal rectal anastomosis - has, however, received a lot of criticism since it has been claimed that the removal of the colon from the active digestive tract leads to the development of a colon-like microflora in the ileum (Köhler et al, 1991). The aim of this experiment was to evaluate if the possible development of microflora affected the ileal digestibility results obtained.