Cats fed animal plasma have better digestibility

Spray-dried animal plasma (SDAP) is a common ingredient that is preferred in canned pet food products due to its high protein concentration and technological properties. Spray-dried animal plasma has excellent water-holding capacity, foaming and emulsifying properties and gel strength when heated above 80°C. In addition, because SDAP is an animal protein, strict carnivores such as cats prefer diets formulated with SDAP to those that use wheat gluten (WG) or other vegetable proteins.

In a study, 11 mixed breed adult cats were used in a crossover digestibility design study to determine apparent nutrient digestibility of canned chunks and gravy food containing either 30 g/kg SDAP or 30 g/kg wheat gluten (WG) added to the emulsion as binders for producing chunks prior to addition of gravy and subsequent sterilisation and canning. Cats were fed 400 g/d of each diet for a 7 d acclimation period followed by a 5 d faecal collection period.

The diet had no significant effect on daily food consumption during the whole study. In addition, there was no effect shown between the diets regarding dry faecal excretion and faecal consistency.

It was however shown that cats fed the SDAP diet had improved (P < 0.05) apparent dry matter, crude fibre, ash, phosphorus, and calcium digestibility compared to the wg diet. results indicate that components in sdap may retain biological functions that exert beneficial effects on the digestive system of healthy adult cats even after sterilization and canning.>

The full study has been published in the Journal of Animal Feed Science and Technology and can be read here.