• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.517-522
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• 2007

The aim of this study was to compare in vitro gas production kinetics, metabolizable energy (ME), organic matter digestibility (OMD) and microbial protein (MP) production of widely used legume hays in ruminant nutrition in Turkey. Gas production were determined at 0, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 72 and 96 h and their kinetics were described using the equation p = a+b ($1-e^{-ct}$). There were significant differences among legume hays in terms of chemical composition. The crude protein content of legume hays ranged from 11.7 to 18.6% of dry matter (DM); crude fat from 2.1 to 3.5% DM; neutral detergent fiber from 35.6 to 52.0% DM; acid detergent fiber from 32.0 to 35.5% DM and acid detergent lignin 1.7 to 11.0% DM. Total gas production after 96 h incubation ranged between 61.67 and 76.00 ml/0.200 g of substrate. At 24, 72 and 96 h incubation the total gas production for common vetch were significantly (p<0.01) higher than those of the other legume hays. The ME, OMD and MP of legume hays ranged from 9.09 to 11.12 MJ/kg DM, 61.30 to 75.54% and 90.35 to 138.05 g/kg DM, respectively. The ME, OMD and MP of common vetch was significantly (p<0.01) higher than those of the other hays due to low cell-wall contents and high crude protein. At the end of the experiment, differences in chemical composition of legume hays resulted in the differences in the in vitro gas production, gas production kinetics and the estimated parameters such as ME, OMD and MP. Common vetch can be recommended to hay producers and ruminant breeders, due to high ME, OMD and MP production.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.356-364
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• 2009

The current ruminant feeding models require parameterization of the digestion kinetics of carbohydrate fractions in feed ingredients to estimate the supply of nutrients from a ration. Using an automated gas production technique, statistically welldefined digestion rate of carbohydrate, including soluble carbohydrate, can be estimated in a relatively easy way. In this study, the gas production during in vitro fermentation was measured and recorded by an automated gas production system to investigate degradation kinetics of carbohydrate fractions of a wide range of ruminant feeds: corn silage, rice straw, corn, soybean hull, soybean meal, and cell mass from lysine production (CMLP). The gas production from un-fractionated, ethanol insoluble residue and neutral detergent insoluble residue of the feed samples were obtained. The gas profiles of carbohydrate fractions on the basis of the carbohydrate scheme of the Cornell Net Carbohydrate and Protein System (A, B1, B2, B3 and C) were generated using a subtraction approach. After the gas profiles were plotted with time, a curve was fitted with a single-pool exponential equation with a discrete lag to obtain kinetic parameters that can be used as inputs for modern nutritional models. The fractional degradation rate constants (Kd) of corn silage were 11.6, 25.7, 14.8 and 0.8%/h for un-fractioned, A, B1 and B2 fractions, respectively. The values were statistically well estimated, assessed by high t-value (>12.9). The Kd of carbohydrate fractions in rice straw were 4.8, 21.1, 5.7 and 0.5%/h for un-fractioned, A, B1 and B2 fractions, respectively. Although the Kd of B2 fraction was poorly defined with a t-value of 4.4, the Kd of the other fractions showed tvalues higher than 21.9. The un-fractioned corn showed the highest Kd (18.2%/h) among the feeds tested, and the Kd of A plus B1 fraction was 18.7%/h. Soybean hull had a Kd of 6.0, 29.0, 3.8 and 13.8%/h for un-fractioned, A, B1 and B2, respectively. The large Kd of fraction B2 indicated that NDF in soybean hull was easily degradable. The t-values were higher than 20 except for the B1 fraction (5.7). The estimated Kd of soybean meal was 9.6, 24.3, 5.0%/h for un-fractioned, A and B1 fractions, respectively. A small amount of gas (5.6 ml at 48 ho of incubation) was produced from fermentation of CMLP which contained little carbohydrate. In summary, the automated gas production system was satisfactory for the estimation of well defined (t-value >12) kinetic parameters and Kd of soluble carbohydrate fractions of various feedstuffs that supply mainly carbohydrate. The subtraction approach, however, should be applied with caution for some concentrates, especially those which contain a high level of crude protein since nitrogen-containing compounds can interfere with gas production.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.169-178
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• 2014

Samples of Clitoria ternatea L. (Cunh$\tilde{a}$) were harvested at 35, 50, 70, and 90 d after a uniformity harvest in a field study designed as a completely randomized design with a total of 18 experimental plots. The dry matter yield of the whole plant was separated quantitatively into leaves, stems, and pods at each harvesting age. Chemical analyses and in vitro gas production kinetics were performed to assess the quality of the plant parts. Yields, chemical composition, and estimates of gas production parameters were analyzed by fitting a mixed statistical model with two types of covariance structures as follows: variance components and an unrestricted structure with heterogeneous variances. Fast and slow gas yielding pools were detected for both leaves and stems, but only a single pool was detected for pods. The homoscedasticity assumption was more likely for all variables, except for some parameters of the gas production kinetics of leaves and stems. There was no presence of typical pods at 35 and 50 d. In the leaves, the fibrous fractions were affected, whereas the non-fibrous fractions were unaffected by the harvesting age. The harvesting age affected the majority of the chemical constituents and gas kinetic parameters related to the stems. The leaves of this legume were the least affected part by the aging process.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.20 no.9
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• pp.1444-1452
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• 2007

An in vitro experiment was conducted to evaluate the differences in microbial activity of five faecal inocula from weaned pigs and one faecal inoculum from unweaned pigs in combination with 6 substrates. The substrates tested were negative control diet, corn, soybean meal, oligofructose (OF), ground chicory roots and a mixture (60% chicory pulp and 40% OF). The inocula used were derived from pigs fed either a corn-soy based diet without antibiotics (NCON), the NCON diet supplemented with oligofructose (OF), a mixture of chicory pulp (40%) and OF (60%) (MIX), ground chicory roots (CHR) or the NCON diet supplemented with antibiotics (PCON). The cumulative gas production measured fermentation kinetics and end products, such as total gas production, ammonia and volatile fatty acids, were also determined. Both the substrate and the inoculum significantly affected the fermentation characteristics. The cumulative gas production curve showed that different substrates caused more differences in traits of fermentation kinetics than the different inocula. Inocula of weaned pigs gave a significantly higher VFA production compared to the inoculum from unweaned animals, whilst the rate of fermentation and the total gas produced did not differ. OF showed the highest fermentation kinetics and the lowest $NH_3$, pH and OM loss compared to other substrates. It was concluded that the microbial activity was significantly affected by substrate and inoculum. Inoculum from weaned pigs had more potential for microbial fermentation of the carbohydrate ingredients and oligofructose than that of unweaned pigs. A combination of high and low polymer inulin may be more beneficial to the gut ecosystem than using high- or low-polymer inulin alone.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.75-80
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• 2000

Kinetic data for the acid phase anaerobic digestion were presented in this study and the constants were determined with acid production rate and gas production rate. Process models based on continuous culture theory were used to describe the characteristics of the acid forming microorganisms and to enable further development toward utilization of the process in a more rational manner. Acid phase digestion can be separated with appropriate manipulation of hydraulic retention time in anaerobic digestion. Kinetic analysis of data from the various hydraulic retention times using a phase specific model obtained form the acid phase indicated maximum specific growth rate of 0.40/h, saturation constant of 2,000mgCOD.$\ell$, yield coefficient of 0.35 mgVSS/msCOD utilized and decay constant of 0.04/h for the acid production rate. Similar analysis of data for the gas production rate indicated maximum specific growth rate of 0.003/h, saturation constant of 2,200mgCOD/$\ell$, yield coefficient of 0.035 mgVSS/mgCOD utilized and decay constant of 0.06/h.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.990-996
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• 2005

The effect of diets varying in level and source of nitrogen (N) and fermentable organic matter on dynamic characteristics of microbial populations in rumen liquor and their impact on substrate fermentation in vitro was studied. The diets tested were straw alone, straw+concentrate mixture and straw+urea molasses mineral block (UMMB) lick. The same diets were taken as substrates and tested on each inoculum collected from the diets. Diet had no effect on the amino acid (AA) composition of either bacteria or protozoa. Differences among the diets in intake, source of N and OM affected bacterial and protozoal characteristics in the rumen. Upper asymptote of gas production (Y$\alpha$) had a higher correlation with bacterial pool size and production rate than with protozoal pool size and production rate. Among the parameters of the gas production model, Y$\alpha$ and lag time in total gas has showed significant (p<0.01) correlation with bacterial characteristics. Though the rate constant of gas production significantly differed (p<0.01) between diet and type of straw, it was least influenced by the microbial characteristics. The regression coefficient of diet and type of straw for Y$\alpha$ indicated that the effect of diet on Y$\alpha$ was threefold higher than that of the straw. As microbial characteristics showed higher correlation with Y$\alpha$, and diet had more influence on the microbial characteristics, gas production on a straw diet could be used effectively to understand the microbial characteristics.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.825-831
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• 2014

The aim of this study was to determine the nutritive value of some legume species in salt-affected soils of South-East Anatolian region using chemical composition and in vitro gas production kinetics. In this study, Lotus corniculatus, Trifolium alexandrinum, Medicago sativa were sown and tested in four different locations. A 3 by 4 factorial design with 3 legume species and 4 salt levels (non salty electrical conductivity (EC)<4 dS/m; low salt: 4 dS/m>EC<8 dS/m, medium saline: 8 dS/m>EC<16 dS/m and high salt: 16 dS/m>EC) was used in the study. Results indicated that salinity and plants had no significant effect on ash and ether extract. Dry matter (DM), acid detergent fiber, digestible dry matter, dry matter intake (DMI) were affected by plant, salinity and plant${\times}$salinity interaction. On the other hand neutral detergent fiber, relative feed value (RFV), and DMI were affected by salinity and plant${\times}$salinity interaction. Mineral contents were affected by plant species, salinity and salinity${\times}$plants interactions. In vitro gas production, their kinetics and estimated parameters such as were not affected by salinity whereas the gas production up to 48 h, organic matter digestibility, metabolizable energy (ME), and net energy lactation ($NE_L$) were affected by plant and plant${\times}$salt interaction. Generally RFVs of all species ranged from 120 to 210 and were quite satisfactory in salty conditions. Current results show that the feed value of Medicago sativa is higher compared to Lotus corniculatus and Trifolium alexandrinum.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.3-8
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• 2015

Gasification characteristics and gas produced from a sewage sludge char were analyzed by using a thermobalance reactor, which is used for a reaction kinetic analysis by measuring weight change of materials at a desired temperature. Gasification reaction rate increased with increasing temperature and steam partial pressure due to the promotion of gasification reaction. Three models of gas-solid reaction were applied to the reaction kinetics analysis and modified volumetric reaction model was an appropriated model for the steam gasification of the sewage sludge char. Apparent activation energy and pre-exponential factors were evaluated as 155.5 kJ/mol and $14,087s^{-1}atm^{-1}$, respectively. The order of reaction on steam partial pressure was 0.68. Gas analysis was performed at $900^{\circ}C$ and hydrogen concentration was highest in the gas concentrations, which increased with increasing the steam partial pressure. Hydrogen concentration increased the most and hydrogen concentration in the produced gas was 2-4 times higher than that of carbon monoxide due to the gasification and water gas shift reaction.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.19 no.8
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• pp.1120-1126
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• 2006

Dry matter (DM) degradation of leaves from Quercus cercis, Quercus libari, Quercus branti, and Quercus coccifera was determined using two different techniques: (i) in vitro gas production and (ii) the nylon bag degradability technique. In vitro gas production in the presence or absence of PEG and in situ DM disappearance were measured at 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 72 and 96 h. In situ and in vitro DM degradation kinetics were described using the equation y = a+b ($1-e^{-ct}$). At all incubation times leaves from Quercus branti incubated with or without PEG gave significantly higher gas production than the other oak leaves except for 3 and 6 h incubation when leaves from Quercus branti without PEG supplementation only gave higher gas production than Quercus cercis and Quercus coccifera. At all incubation times except at 3, 6 and 12 h the DM disappearance from Quercus branti was significantly higher than the other species. Generally, PEG supplementation considerably increased the gas production at all incubation times and estimated parameters such as gas production rate ($c_{gas}$), gas production (ml) from the quickly soluble fraction ($a_{gas}$), gas production (b) from the insoluble fraction, potential gas production (a+b). However, all oak leaves did not give the same response to the PEG supplementation. Although the increase in gas production at 96 h incubation time was 8.9 ml for Quercus libari the increase was 5.5 ml for Quercus coccifera. It was concluded that except at early incubation times the relationships between the two methodologies seem to be sufficiently strong to predict degradability parameters from gas production parameters obtained in the presence or absence of PEG.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.13 no.8
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• pp.1084-1093
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• 2000

An in vitro gas production system was used to investigate the influence of various substrate mixtures on a natural mix of rumen microbes by measurement of fermentation end-products. The treatments were combinations of cassava (15.0, 30.0 and 45.0%) with different roughage sources (ruzi grass, rice straw or urea treated rice straw). Microbial biomass, net $^{15}N$ incorporation into cells, volatile fatty acid production, gas volume and rate of gas production increased linearly with increasing levels of cassava inclusion. There was also an effect of roughage source, with rice straw being associated with the lowest values for most parameters whilst similar values were obtained for ruzi grass and urea treated rice straw. The results suggest that microbial growth and fermentation rate increase as a function of readily available carbohydrate in the substrate mixture. A strong linear relationship between $^{15}N$ enrichment, total volatile fatty acid production and gas production kinetics support the suggestion of the use of the in vitro gas production system as a tool for screening feedstuffs as an initial stage of feed evaluation.