| Budget Amount *help |
¥1,800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,800,000)
Fiscal Year 1992: ¥200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥200,000)
Fiscal Year 1991: ¥200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥200,000)
Fiscal Year 1990: ¥1,400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000)
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| Research Abstract |
Digestive efficiencies of fiber components and retention time of digesta in the digestive tract were measured in the mara, nutria, rabbit, guinea pig, rat, degu, hamster and leaf-eared mouse on same diet containing 50 % alfalfa.
Considerable linear relation is observed between body weights and retention times of digesta. However, the relation between the digestibility of ADF and the mean retention time of a particle marker in the eight animals showed no clear relation among these animals. From these results, the retention time and transit time of digesta in the whole tract is inadequate to explain the difference in the ability of fiber digestion in these animals.
The number of caecal cellulolytic bacteria and in vitro cellulolytic activity of caecal microbes in the guinea-pig, rat and leaf-eared mouse were determined by the roll tube method (Hungate 1966) and by inoculating the paper-containing media from dilutions of caecal contents (Mann 1968), respectively.
The number of cellulolytic bacteria was smaller in the guinea-pig than in the rat and leaf-eared mouse. The cellulolytic activity of caecal microbes was detected in the medium containing rumen fluid in the guinea-pig. The activity was detected both in the medium containing rumen fluid and in the medium without rumen fluid only in the rat.
These suggest that the species and activity of caecal microbes are different between each animal species fed on the same diet, and that the digestibility of fiber is not depend on the activity of microbes in the caecum. The digesta retention time and pattern of digesta flow in the large intestine can be considered to be the main factor to affect fiber digestion in the hindgut fermenters
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