Use of near-infrared spectroscopy to predict energy content of commercial dog food.

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is used in the pet food industry for rapid assessment of several macronutrients and GE content, but there is little published data on its usefulness for evaluating GE and GE digestibility (GED) of commercial pet food. Using NIRS spectra of 71 commercial extruded dog foods and reference values determined with calorimetry and in vivo feeding trials, chemometric models were developed for GE, GED, and DE prediction. The SE and R(2) of cross-validation were 0.30 MJ/kg DM and 0.93 for GE, 2.10% and 0.82 for GED, and 0.53 MJ/kg DM and 0.92 for DE. The results indicated that NIRS provides GE, GED, and DE estimation values for dog food with an accuracy similar to that of the 2006 NRC proposed equations for use in pet food. Near-infrared spectroscopy is a fast and accurate method for predicting energy content in commercial extruded dog food, and is a useful and reliable tool to be used by the pet food industry when a wide enough calibration set is available.