Browsing by Subject "kypsennys"

The purpose of this study was to study the effect of processing temperature on the digestibility of meat-based dog food. The research was conducted together with the University of Helsinki and with dog raw food manufacturer Mush Oy. The research hypothesis was that intense heat-treatment would impair the digestibility of the feed. The research was conducted using voluntary house dogs. The dogs that participated in this research were living with their owners during the whole experiment. All of the feed used in this research was produced from the same batch of pork-bovine minced meat where vitamin mineral mix and digestibility marker Celite 545 silica (10 g/kg) were added. The silica provides additional acid-insoluble ash (AIA), which acts as a tracer. The test feeds were divided to three groups according to processing including unprocessed raw meat, lightly cooked meat and heavily cooked meat. The dogs were fed twice a day by the owner. The duration of the experiment was 10 days. The experiment began with a preliminary period of five days. A collection period of five days was then performed. During the collection period, the dog owner collected the dog's feces in a plastic bag for each occasion. The dry matter, organic matter, ash, crude protein, crude fat, gross energy, and AIA tracer were determined from feed and fecal samples. All digestibility values were numerically highest for unprocessed feed, and digestibility decreased by heat-treatment. The difference in digestibility between different processing methods was significant only with dry matter digestibility. Dry matter digestibility was significantly higher with unprocessed feed. The difference in dry matter digestibility between the heat treatments did not differ significantly. However, the differences in digestibility between the various processing methods were so little that they have no practical relevance to the dog's nutrition. Further research is needed on the possible influence of cooking meat-based feed to nutrient loss of vitamins or minerals and to microbiota.