Apparent digestibility and proteic quality of the basic diet of Rio de Janeiro State complemented with multimixture

Some factors in food can influence the protein digestibility positively or negatively. The protein quality is related to the protein synthesis capacity, growth, maintenance, reproduction and reconstitution of an organism. This work aims to determine the apparent digestibility coefficient and the protein quality of the standard basic diet of Rio de Janeiro State (HERJ), complemented with 2% of the multimixture (HERJ + MM), during rats' gestation and lactation periods. The results indicated a lower apparent digestibility coefficient (P < 0.05) during the gestation and lactation periods in HERJ diets (82.4% +/- 0.55; 80.64% +/- 1.7) and HERJ + MM (80.9% +/- 3.28; 81.7% +/- 1.2), in comparison to the casein diet (91.8% +/- 0.6; 93.9% +/- 0.4). There was no significant difference (P < 0.05) between HERJ diet (2.75 +/- 0.14) and HERJ + MM diet (2.53 +/- 0.18). However, the casein diet has showed a higher lactation value (3.27 +/- 0.3) in comparison with the two above mentioned groups. Therefore the use of the multimixture at 2% level neither impairs the apparent digestibility coefficient nor does it change the protein quality of the standard diet of Rio de Janeiro State.