Automated determination of urea and ammoniacal nitrogen (NPN) in animal feeds

A minor modification in the automated analytical system of the official AOAC semiautomated method for determining crude proteins results in an automated method for determining urea and ammoniacal nitrogen in animal feeds and their ingredients. Urease enzyme which has high activity, yields a clear solution in water, has low ammonia impurity, and is inexpensive is used in the automated method. Weights from 1 to 2.5 g feed sample are dissolved in water, and sample solutions are analyzed at the rate of 40 samples/h. Five AAFCO feed check samples were analyzed repeatedly by the automated method, and results were compared with the grand averages from the check sample reports. The official AOAC manual urease method was used by AAFCO participants. Average recovery of urea and ammoniacal nitrogen was 100.6% by the automated method relative to the AAFCO reported averages. The range of recoveries as 98.5-102.7%. The non-protein nitrogen (NPN) concentrations, expressed as protein equivalent, ranged from 3.40 to 63.04% protein on these samples. The average relative standard deviation for the automated analyses was 0.77%, compared with 1.54% for the manual method. This method is an important adjunct to laboratories using or considering use of the semiautomated method for crude protein and needing further information on NPN.