Ruminant feces used as inoculum for the in vitro gas production technique

ABSTRACT: ruminal feed fermentation can be studied through in vitro gas production. However, this technique requires fistulated animals from which to obtain the inoculum, which limits its use. Objective: the objective of this experiment was to evaluate the usefulness of feces instead of rumen fluid as the inoculum of reference, by determining the precision and accuracy resulting from both methods. Methods: six forage species (Gliricidia sepium, Panicum maximum, Pennisetum clandestinum, Lolium sp., Morus alba and Cynodon nlemfuensis) were incubated with bovine rumen fluid or feces to quantify gas production and dry matter degradation over time. Bacteria, fungi, and protozoa counts were assessed in both inocula. Results: cumulative gas production and gas production rate were higher for the ruminal inoculum during the initial incubation period. Ruminal liquid showed lower variability compared to its own mean. Conclusions: according to the Bland-Altman analysis, inocula are not interchangeable. The difference in gas production kinetics between both inoculum sources reflected a longer time to colonize the substrate and lower microbial concentration in the fecal fluid, which resulted useful solely in determining the extent of dry matter degradation.

• Autores: Posada Ochoa, Sandra Lucía; Rosero Noguera, Jaime Ricardo; Segura Caro, Juan Aicardo
• Tipo de recurso: Article of investigation
• Fecha de publicación: 2012
• Institución: Universidad de Antioquia
• Repositorio: Repositorio UdeA
• Idioma: eng
• OAI Identifier: oai:bibliotecadigital.udea.edu.co:10495/9001
• Acceso en línea: http://hdl.handle.net/10495/9001
• Palabra clave: Fermentation; Fistula; Microbial diversity; Rumen fermentation; Diversidad microbiana; Fermentación; Fermentación del rumen; Filtulas
• Rights: openAccess
• License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/