Taurine content of liver vs heart

ldg

TCS Member
Thread starter
Veteran
Joined
Jun 25, 2002
Messages
41,310
Purraise
842
Location
Fighting for ferals in NW NJ!
I was reviewing this document by Spitze et al published in 2003 (UC Davis). http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/vmb/labs/aal/pdfs/spitze.pdf

Taurine concentrations in animal feed ingredients; cooking influences taurine content J. Anim. Physiol. a. Anim. Nutr. 87 (2003), 251–262


According to this document, chicken liver has far, far more taurine than heart:

Chicken, heart and liver 1179 (888 - 1561) mg taurine/kg wet weight / 5132 (4315 - 6441) mg taurine/kg dry weight
Chicken, liver 1100mg as fed, 4668 DMB.

Chicken heart contains 79mg taurine/kg as fed? Really? And 464mg DMB vs chicken liver at 4668mg DMB? Does this even make sense?

Chicken dark meat: 1690mg taurine/kg as fed / DMB not available.

????????

For beef, heart is listed as 652mg as fed and 3461mg DMB vs liver at 688mg as fed and 2359 DMB.

Compare that to lung (956mg as fed / 3938 DMB), spleen (874mg as fed / 5848 DMB), and Tongue (1110mg as fed / 4158 DMB)

What am I missing?

Just the information that beef heart is taurine rich - chicken heart isn't - and organs have more than heart? :dk:

Is it just a myth that "heart" is taurine-rich and it is type-of-protein dependent? Sadly, only info for beef heart and (implied) chicken heart is included in the report.

Is the chicken heart info just wrong?

And the usual "taurine is concentrated in electrically active muscles" seems to hold true, though I guess secreting organs are very electrically active? :dk: Lungs and tongues certainly are....

Can anyone help me make sense of commonly repeated information vs this data?

Thank you!
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #3

ldg

TCS Member
Thread starter
Veteran
Joined
Jun 25, 2002
Messages
41,310
Purraise
842
Location
Fighting for ferals in NW NJ!
:nod: Yes, that makes sense.

What doesn't make sense is the info for chicken hearts. :lol3: I guess if the upper end of the range provided is used, the numbers make a bit more sense.

I guess the take-away for me is that secreting organs, lung and tongue are also a rich source of taurine. Not that I ever thought they weren't... I just didn't think about it, and repeated like a parrot that heart is rich in taurine.
 

mschauer

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jun 17, 2007
Messages
6,753
Purraise
2,338
Location
Houston, Tx
But the full range for beef liver from 2 sources is 144-1023 mg/kg. 1023 would make it a good source. 144 though....?

The chicken liver range is smaller but can that really be relied on given the beef range???
 
Last edited:
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #5

ldg

TCS Member
Thread starter
Veteran
Joined
Jun 25, 2002
Messages
41,310
Purraise
842
Location
Fighting for ferals in NW NJ!
Good point. So another take-away. I'll stop telling people heart is a good source of taurine. I mean - the implication is that it is vs other ingredients. That doesn't seem to be the case, not necessarily.
 

mschauer

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jun 17, 2007
Messages
6,753
Purraise
2,338
Location
Houston, Tx
Is that paper the only basis for claiming heart is a good source of taurine? I didn't realize the claim came from it.
 
Last edited:
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #7

ldg

TCS Member
Thread starter
Veteran
Joined
Jun 25, 2002
Messages
41,310
Purraise
842
Location
Fighting for ferals in NW NJ!
Well obviously the claim DOESN'T come from that paper. I have no idea where the claim comes from - it's like the "don't feed kibble and raw at the same time" thing. I see it all the time, but have no science to support it. The reasoning made sense, but ... of course, I've now seen quite a few cats transitioned to raw while eating kibble, and I know a LOT of dogs eating both, and yet I don't know a single one that has gotten sick from the combo.

It never occurred to me to question the "don't worry about taurine if you're feeding heart" recommendations. The "electrically active muscles" theory made sense. Yet here I am, looking that the data, going ... um, liver appears to have more taurine than heart.... of course, in PMR, theoretically you shouldn't "up" liver for taurine, based on the 80/10/5/5 guidelines.... the idea, clearly, is to find higher sources of taurine within that 80% portion of the PMR diet. But looks to me like more dark meat, tongue or lung are better recommendation - IF any conclusion at all can even be drawn from this data.
 

mschauer

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jun 17, 2007
Messages
6,753
Purraise
2,338
Location
Houston, Tx
Yeah, it's a big problem in the feeding of a home-made diet that there are a lot of things that are commonly accepted as true that really don't seem to have a solid basis in fact. Or at least we can't determine what the basis is.
 
Last edited:

ritz

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Apr 2, 2010
Messages
4,656
Purraise
282
Location
Annapolis, MD
The numbers cited are making my head spin but my first thought is: personally, I would feed a whole meal of heart but would never feed the same quantity of liver or lung. So on a per kilogram/pound basis, the liver/lung might have more taurine, but as a practical matter, I'll stick with hearts or dark meat.
 
  • Purraise
Reactions: ldg
Top