Tropical and Subtropical Agroecosystems (Aug 2015)
In vitro CULTURE OF RUMEN CILIATE PROTOZOA BASED ON Parmentiera aculeata Kunth MEDIUM
Abstract
The present research aims to measure the ciliated protozoa concentration, pH, the concentration of volatile fatty acids (VFA) and the in-vitro dry matter degradation in a culture environment based Parmentiera aculeata Kunth. The treatments were: T1, 300 µL of Avena sativa; T2, T3 and T4 had 150, 300 y 450 µL of P. aculeata Kunth, respectively; and T5, 300 µL of Chenopodium ambrosioides L. Every treatment was inoculated with ruminal fluid and incubated for 3, 6, 12, 24, 48 and 72 hours to 38±0.5 °C. Based on a randomly experimental design, the data was analyzed by GLM and the means were compared with Tukey (p≤0.05) while the protozoa concentration was analyzed with a rank test. There were differences in the protozoa concentration and pH between treatments; T3 and T4 had the largest amounts (p≤0.05) compared with the other treatments, especially with T5. There was no difference (p≤0.05) in the acetic acid concentration between T1, T2 and T3 compared with T4 at 72 hours and with T5 from 6 hours of incubation, besides for the concentration of butyric acid T5 had the lowest amount (p≤0.05) at 72 hours. The smallest concentration of total VFA was for T4 and T5 from 48 hours. P. aculeata Kunth used like subtract helps to preserve for 3 days a ciliated protozoa population of 104 without alterate the fermentation process. Keywords: Agroforestry, Livestock, Animal nutrition, Wildlife rumen. Â