Cultivated Hamster Cell vs. Chicken Meat Acceptance and Digestibility in Domestic Cats

A study on 10 adult research cats evaluated the acceptance and apparent total tract digestibility of a feline diet containing cultivated hamster cell biomass as the sole animal-derived ingredient, compared to a control diet based on chicken breast meat. The research, authored by Federica Bortolazzi and published on figshare in 2026, involved a two-day acceptance test and a cross-over digestibility trial with 5-day fecal collection periods. Results indicate the cultivated biomass was well accepted and adequately digestible for use in feline diets.

Use Cases

• Compare protein digestibility metrics between novel and traditional animal protein sources based on the described digestibility trial.
• Analyze food acceptance and palatability in domestic cats based on the reported food leftover percentages and palatability enhancer inclusion levels.
• Assess the feasibility of cultivated meat as a sustainable ingredient in pet nutrition based on the study's clinical monitoring and fecal consistency results.

Strengths

• Study design includes a double-blinded, cross-over trial with 10 cats for acceptance and 8 cats for digestibility, providing controlled experimental data.
• Provides specific quantitative results, including protein digestibility percentages (85.3% vs. 83.9%) and food leftover percentages (2.4% vs. 8.5%) with reported p-values.
• Dataset is openly available under a CC-BY-4.0 license, facilitating reuse and verification.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale statistical modeling.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download from the PDF report.
• The dataset's scale is limited to a single study with 10 cats, which may affect generalizability.

Provenance

Source

Federica Bortolazzi via figshare.

Collection Method

Data was generated from a controlled feeding trial involving acceptance tests and digestibility measurements using an indicator method with Celite®.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-21 15:24:34; freshness should be verified.