Spray-dried porcine plasma in dog foods: implications on digestibility, palatability and haematology

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate food palatability, digestibility and blood parameter of dogs fed diets containing increasing levels of spray-dried porcine plasma (SDP). We also aimed to evaluate the SDP digestibility for dogs. We used 36 dogs distributed in 3 experiments. In the digestibility assay (Experiment 1), eight adult Beagles were distributed according to a double Latin square design (4 x 4). The following diets were evaluated: 0, 4, 8, and 12% SDP of diet. In the palatability trial (Experiment 2), 20 adult dogs were used. Diets containing 0 and 4% SDP were pair-wised compared. Blood parameters (Experiment 3) were evaluated in eight adult Beagles. Dogs were fed the diet with 0% for 10 days and then the diet with 12% SDP for further 10 days. Dietary SDP inclusion promoted a linear increase (P0.05). In conclusion, SDP shows high digestibility of CP and DM, being feasible its use in diets for dogs. However, it is important to study the effects of inclusion levels lower than 4%, in order to do not compromise diet palatability.

Keywords

• Blood parameters
• Digestibility
• Dogs
• Leukocytes
• Protein sources.