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Use of the rumen simulation technique (rusitec) to provide micro-organisms for assessing forage rate-of-fermentation in vitro: effect of soluble carbohydrate inputs to rusitec

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 November 2017

J H T Barbi
Affiliation:
Department of Agriculture, University of Reading, Earley Gate, PO Box 236, Reading, Berks RG6 2AT
E Owen
Affiliation:
Department of Agriculture, University of Reading, Earley Gate, PO Box 236, Reading, Berks RG6 2AT
M K Theodorou
Affiliation:
institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, Plas Gogerddan, Aberystwyth, Dyfed SY23 3EB
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Extract

In previous experiments (Barbi, Owen & Theodorou, 1993; Barbi, Owen & Theodorou, 1994), to minimize the reliance on fistulated animals in feed evaluation, effluent fluid from the in vitro rumen simulation technique (RUSITEC - Czerkawski & Breckenridge, 1977) was used to replace strained rumen liquor as the inoculum for the Pressure Transducer Technique (PTT - Theodorou, Brooks, Dhanoa, McAllan & Gill, 1993). In Barbi et al (1993), two different dilution rates in RUSITEC were compared, whereas in Barbi et al (1994), the effect of increasing the solid food input to RUSITEC was assessed. In both experiments low microbial activity in the RUSITEC effluent fluid affected the PTT results, reducing rates and extent of fermentation profiles to below those in the rumen-liquor inoculated control cultures.

In the present study, mixtures of glucose and xylose, as sources of liquid-phase nutrients, were infused, in differing quantities, into RUSITEC vessels. Also, the effect of adding or not adding a source of solid nutrient (hay) to the effluent collection vessels, was investigated. The objective, in both treatments, was to increase the cellulolytic microbial activity of RUSITEC effluent fluid.

Type
Ruminant Nutrition and Digestion
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Production 1994

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References

Barbi, J H T, Owen, E, Theodorou, M K 1993 Use of the rumen simulation technique (RUSITEC) to provide microorganisms for assessing the rate of fermentation, in vitro , of forages. Animal Production 56: 462 (Abstract).Google Scholar
Barbi, J H T, Owen, E, Theodorou, M K 1994 Use of the rumen simulation technique to provide micro-organisms for assessing forage rate-of-fermentation in vitro: effect of solid food input to RUSITEC. In Proceedings of Winter meeting of British Society of Animal Procuction Google Scholar
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Theodorou, M K, Williams, B A, Brooks, A, Dhanoa, M S, McAllan, A B & Gill, M 1993. Estimation of kinetic parameters associated with the digestibility of tropical forages using a new in vitro gas production procedure. In Animal Production in Developing Countries Occasional Publication No 16 (ed Gill, M, Owen, E, Pollot, G E and Lawrence, T L J) British Society of Animal Production, 224–225.Google Scholar