Approach to determine the amino acid composition of the natural diet of red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufa)

摘要

Red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufct) plays a very important role in Spanish ecosystems being part of the diet of 32 predators (3 reptiles, 9 birds and 20 mammals; Yanes et al, 1998). Also, it has a big economic importance and, as the favorite game species, it is subjected to an enormous hunting pressure. As a result, it is bred intensively in game farms to satisfy the hunters' demand and restock areas where its number is too low. About 4 millions of birds/yr are released. Hunting season is performed during the reproductive rest when partridges are in maintenance conditions. NRC (1994) reported the nutrients requirements for game birds without specific data for partridges and in many cases the reader is addressed to requirements of turkeys. Nevertheless, the requirements of free-living birds potentially differ significantly from those of domestic species that have been inbred for improvement of meat and egg production (Murphy and King, 1982). Therefore, Alectoris rufa requirements still remain essentially unknown with no information about the amino acids (AA) composition of the natural diet or differences related to gender. The objective of this work was to establish a first approach to determine the AA composition of the natural diet of adult red-legged partridge.