Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Department of Animal and Poultry Sciences, College of Aburaihan, University of Tehran

Abstract

The aim was to evaluate effects of in vitro fermentation of different forages co-incubated with different types of non-fiber carbohydrates (NFC) on gas production, digestibility, microbial biomass, medium pH and ammonia concentration. A completely randomized design with factorial arrangement  (9 treatments and 3 replicates) were used wherein wheat straw, alfalfa hay and corn silage constituted main forage sources and starch, sucrose and pectin were components of NFC. 0.2 g of each forage samples incubated with 0.3 g of each NFC component for 24 h and gas production, apparent and true digestibility, microbial biomass, pH and ammonia concentration measured.  Forage and NFC sources, alone but not in combination, had a significant effect on gas production, digestibility as well as ammonia concentration (p<0.05). The estimated microbial biomass was lower for wheat straw samples (0.14 vs. 0.16 g /g DM digested for other forage samples), but was not affected by NFC and its interaction with forage sources (p<0.05). Also, NFC sources affected medium pH significantly with the lowest values for sucrose while the highest for pectin. Results showed that previously known effects of NFC sources in vivo are also consistently observed in vitro while it was not affected by co-incubation with different forage sources.

Keywords

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