RHEOLOGICAL MODELS USED TO CHARACTERIZE THE RUMINAL FLUID

Abstract

From the literature data resulted that the high ratio of cereals from the feeding diets in ruminants led to the marked increase of the ruminal fluid viscosity. The studies from the present research were done on young sheep of the Tsurcana breed divided into two groups each comprising a number of nine heads, as follows: control group (LM) fed with feed diet composed of alfalfa hay 60% and barley 40%; the experimental group (LE) fed with the same basic feed diet but with an addition of yeast (1.5 g Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Yea-Sacc1026 strain /head/day). Ruminal fluid was sampled from the ventral sack of the slaughtered animals and analyzed with a high-tech rheometer. The obtained data were modeled after the power law, Herschel-Bulkley, Volcado, Casson, Cross, Carreau. Modeling was done with the Table Curve program. A very good correlation was noticed between the experimental data and the rheological models. This suggests that the experimental data can be interpreted by any of the given models, and the simplest model was selected (power law) because it is the most used model. As well, this model is at the basis of the rheological fluid classification.

Keywords

• ruminal fluid
• sheep
• rheological models