Effects of meals on gastric emptying and small intestinal transit times of a suspension in the beagle dog assessed using acetaminophen and salicylazosulfapyridine as markers.

Effects of the amount and the composition of meals on gastric emptying and small intestinal transit times of a suspension were investigated in beagle dogs using acetaminophen and salicylazosulfapyridine as markers. Gastric emptying time was affected both by the amount and the composition of a meal; it was prolonged proportionally to the amount of a solid meal and varied among the 3 kinds of test meals of the same energy content in the following rank order: lard greater than skimmed milk greater than mashed potatoes. The inter-individual variation of small intestinal transit time in a fed state was smaller than that in a fasted state, whereas the mean transit times in both states were similar. Small intestinal transit time was not affected by the amount of the solid meal. On the other hand, it varied among the 3 kinds of test meals in the following rank order: lard greater than mashed potatoes greater than skimmed milk. It is noteworthy that small intestinal transit time in the beagle dog is approximately 2 h shorter than that in humans both in fasted and fed states.