[Pre-cecal digestibility of natural thiamine, riboflavin and natural pantothenic acid in the swine animal model].

The aim of the present investigations was to produce results about precaecal digestibility of naturally occurring thiamin, riboflavin and pantothenic acid from corn, wheat bran and dried skim milk. Precaecal digestibility is used as a quantitative measure for availability and was determined in ileorectomized growing pigs. Therefore, 6 female DL-pigs with a liveweight of about 30 kg were fitted with ileorectalanastomosis as end-to-side-anastomosis with preserved ileo-caeco-colic valve. The metabolism trials to collect the chymus quantitatively with these animals were carried out from the third week until 9 weeks after surgery in the liveweight range of about 40-70 kg. Precaecal digestibilities from corn, wheat bran and dried skim milk were for thiamin 87, 91 and 96%, respectively, with all values being significantly different. Riboflavin was 67, 62 and 94% precaecally digestible, the significantly different values for pantothenic ranged from 20 to 47 and 90%. "Availability" of native thiamin was higher than of riboflavin and pantothenic acid, which showed the lowest value of about 50%. The availability of the vitamins from the animal product was significantly higher than from vegetable products. The suitability of the method is discussed.