Interpretive Summary: Protein quality of a small mammal prey and its body organs for felids
By: Mengmeng Sun, Annelies De Cuyper, Guido Bosch, Ellen S Dierenfeld, Wouter H Hendriks, Geert P J Janssens
As obligate carnivores, free-ranging felids consume prey and rely on nutrients from animal organs. Studies in adult carnivores such as domestic cats have demonstrated the importance of the dietary amino acid profile. Therefore, this research used rats as a small prey model to analyze the amino acid composition and digestibility of whole prey and its body organs through in vitro digestion methods. Our results add information on amino acid supply and digestion during natural food intake in felids.
Read the full article in the Journal of Animal Science.