Stoichiometry ofin vitrofermentation of pure substrates with particular emphasis on methane production, using the cumulative gas production technique
There is a need to be able to measure the methane producing potential of a range of feedstuffs under different rumen conditions in order to predict more accurately the amount of methane produced per animal.In vitrotechniques using rumen fluid as an innoculum can be considered as models ofin vivorumen digestion and have been applied to estimate digestibility of feedstuffs. Thein vitrogas production technique (Menkeet. al., 1979) can be used successfully to estimate this but there has been limited attempts to use it to estimate the methane producing potential of feedstuffs. The objective was to assess the potential of the technique to do this.Three pure substrates, glucose (G), pectin (P) and cellulose (C) (lg) were pre-wetted in 94ml of medium D (Theodorouet. al., 1994). inoculated with strained rumen fluid (from wether sheep. 10ml) and incubated without agitation for 72h at 39°C.