Extraction of the tannins from a high-tannin (bird-resistant, BR) sorghum grain resulted in marked improvements in weight gain and feed efficiency of rats as compared with rats fed the intact unextracted grain. Protein and energy digestibility values were significantly reduced for rats fed the BR sorghum diet as compared with rats fed the extracted BR sorghum or a low-tannin sorghum grain diet. Supplementation of the BR sorghum diets with L-methionine or the hydroxy analogue of methionine did not alleviate the detrimental effects of the dietary tannins in rats, whereas chick growth and feed efficiency were significantly improved with similar supplementation. The magnitude of the response to methionine supplementation was much greater with chicks fed BR sorghum than with those fed a low-tannin sorghum.

Text in English