Nutrient digestibility of chickpea in ileal-cannulated finisher pigs and diet nutrient digestibility and growth performance in weaned pigs fed chickpea-based diets

In 2 studies, ileal digestibility of amino acids (AA), energy value of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) and effects of increasing dietary inclusion of chickpea on diet nutrient digestibility and growth performance were evaluated. In Exp. 1, 6 ileal-cannulated barrows (89.9 kg BW) were fed diets containing 965 or 812.5 g chickpea (Kabuli type; mix of cultivars CDC Frontier, CDC Orion, CDC Luna and CDC Leader)/kg in a crossover design. Chickpea contained 213 g crude protein (CP), 328 g starch, 88 g crude fat, 125 g total dietary fibre, 12.9 g chemically available lysine, 5.2 g trypsin inhibitory activity and 4 g tannin per kg (as-is basis). For chickpea, coefficients of standardised ileal digestibility were 0.660 for CP and 0.717 for lysine, the coefficient of apparent ileal digestibility (CAID) of gross energy (GE) was 0.623, the apparent total tract digestibility (CATTD) of GE was 0.886, the digestible energy (DE) value was 15.8 MJ/kg (as fed) and the predicted net energy (NE) value was 11.3 MJ/kg. In Exp. 2, 320 pigs (initial BW: 9.6 kg), weaned at 20 ± 1 days of age, were fed diets containing 0, 75, 150, 225 or 300 g chickpea/kg in substitution for up to 200 g soybean meal and 100 g wheat grain/kg for 3 weeks starting 2 weeks post-weaning. Steam-pelleted diets were formulated to provide 9.8 MJ NE/kg and 1.2 g standardised ileal digestible lysine/MJ NE. Increasing chickpea inclusion quadratically increased (P < 0.001) diet CATTD of dry matter and GE by up to 0.024, diet DE by up to 0.6 MJ/kg and predicted diet NE value by up to 0.4 MJ/kg, but quadratically decreased (P < 0.001) CATTD of CP by up to 0.046. Overall (day 0-21), increasing chickpea quadratically increased (P < 0.05) average daily feed intake (ADFI), quadratically increased then decreased (P < 0.001) average daily gain (ADG) and quadratically decreased (P < 0.001) feed efficiency (G:F) and final BW. Pigs fed diet containing 150 g chickpea/kg had increased (P < 0.01) ADFI by 65 g/d and ADG by 53 g/d while maintaining G:F compared with pigs fed a diet without chickpea. In conclusion, chickpea in the present study had DE and NE similar to reported values, but had a lower CSID of AA than reported. Dietary inclusion of up to 300 g chickpea/kg did not affect feed intake in weaned pigs. Maximum growth and feed efficiency were attained at 150 g chickpea/kg diet fed to weaned pigs.