INDICADORES DE DIGESTIBILIDADE EM BUBALINOS

The knowledge of nutrient digestibility of food in animals is important for the formulation of diets. However, the measurement of fecal intake and excretion is laborious. Thus, finding a good marker to estimate this digestibility is important. As the objective of evaluating internal digestibility markers in Buffaloes 18 animals were subjected to a digestibility assay. The treatments consisted of evaluating the dry matter digestibility by measuring the intake and total fecal excretion of feces (control) measurement or through the concentration of internal indicators DMi, NDFi, or ADFi in feces and food consumed. The indicators overestimated the digestibility of the food dry matter in buffaloes.