A comparison of alternative sources of inocula in an in vitro digestibility tec...

• Author(s): Borba, Alfredo Emílio Silveira de ; Ribeiro, João Ramalho
• Date: 1996
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.3/2628
• Origin: Repositório da Universidade dos Açores
• Subject(s): In Vivo Digestibility; In Vitro Digestibility; Sources of Inocula; Alternative Methods
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

Copyright © Elsevier / INRA, 1996. In this paper we make the comparison between sources of inocula for an in vitro digestibility method based on that of Tilley and Terry (1963) as modified by Alexander and McGowan (1966). The best results for the prediction of the in vivo digestibility were obtained using the traditional method of rumen liquor from fistulated sheep. However, with the two alternative methods, one using rumen liquor from slaughtered cattle, and another, a sheep faeces suspension as inocula sources, we obtained results significantly correlated with in vivo digestibility at the 5% level, although with lower correlation coefficients. The method that uses rumen liquor from slaughtered cattle is, in our opinion, a valid alternative to the traditional method.