Nutritional value of chickpea (Cicer arietinum) and pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan) meals for growing pigs and rats. 1. Energy content and protein quality

Abstract

Two lines of chickpea meal (CPI 56296-b of low fibre content, and CPI 61277 of high fibre content) and one pigeonpea meal (UQ 50) were evaluated, relative to soybean meal, as energy and protein sources for growing pigs and rats. The digestible and metabolizable energy contents of the three protein sources were (MJ kg-1, air-dry basis): chickpea CPI 56296-b, 16.2 and 15.3; chickpea CPI 61277, 14.9 and 14.3; and pigeonpea meal, 15.1 and 14.2, respectively. Both lines of chickpea produced a similar growth performance to soybean meal for growing pigs. Feeding pigeonpea meal resulted in a lower dressing percentage (P < 0.05), and growth rate and feed conversion ratio were inferior on a carcass basis (P < 0.01) relative to the other three diets. There were no differences in backfat thickness or lean content in the ham between the groups of pigs fed on the four diets. With rats, both lines of chickpea produced lower dressing percentages and carcass gains relative to soybean meal (P < 0.05). Pigeonpea was inferior, on a carcass basis, to both soybean and chickpea meals. We conclude that both chickpea meals were suitable as energy and protein sources for pigs, and that short-term rat assays predicted the pig response for pigeonpea but not for chickpea meal.