and characterized by pungent faecal
odour notes at very low concentrations (Le et al., 2005). The observed increase in such indices of protein fermentation in
the colon of pigs offered the barley-based diets may reflect the increased excretion of faecal N when compared with the -
glucan-supplemented wheat-based diet, suggesting an increase in the quantities of proteinaceous material being conveyed
to the dGIT. Previous authors have reported a depressive effect of diets containing elevated cellulose concentrations on
digestibility of N (Kiarie et al., 2007), of both dietary and endogenous origin (Furuya and Kaji, 1992). Therefore the provision
of purified -glucans to a wheat-based diet may offer a more efficacious method to beneficially modulate the contents of
the dGIT compared with a barley-based formulation, whereby a fermentable -glucan source may be provided without the
associated implications for a depressed CTTAD of N and potential formation of odorous metabolites