Table 1.
Effect of supplementing chitosan on ruminal volatile fatty acid proportions.
| HF | BS | p-Value | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CTR | CHI | CTR | CHI | SEM | Breed | Treat | Breed × Treat | |
| Total VFA, mM | 62.9 | 66.6 | 69.8 | 68.4 | 5.04 | 0.418 | 0.823 | 0.628 |
| Individual VFA, mol/100 mol | ||||||||
| Acetic | 65.0 | 62.5 | 64.3 | 64.1 | 0.60 | 0.444 | 0.046 | 0.109 |
| Propionic | 16.7 | 18.8 | 16.6 | 18.2 | 0.57 | 0.533 | 0.008 | 0.674 |
| Butyric | 14.2 | 14.3 | 15.2 | 14.1 | 0.52 | 0.493 | 0.376 | 0.288 |
| Isobutyric | 0.956 | 0.832 | 0.872 | 0.784 | 0.0775 | 0.430 | 0.210 | 0.827 |
| Valeric | 1.28 | 1.25 | 1.29 | 1.26 | 0.054 | 0.877 | 0.635 | 0.934 |
| Isovaleric | 1.87 | 2.25 | 1.69 | 1.56 | 0.161 | 0.022 | 0.477 | 0.154 |
| BCVFA | 2.83 | 3.08 | 2.56 | 2.34 | 0.220 | 0.046 | 0.945 | 0.321 |
| C2/C3 | 3.93 | 3.34 | 3.92 | 3.54 | 0.159 | 0.569 | 0.013 | 0.551 |
| C2 + C4/C3 | 4.84 | 4.15 | 4.89 | 4.36 | 0.195 | 0.522 | 0.011 | 0.707 |
HF: Holstein Friesian; BS: brown Swiss; CTR: control; CHI: chitosan; SEM: standard error of the mean; Treat: treatment; VFA: volatile fatty acids; BCVFA: branched-chain volatile fatty acids; C2/C3: acetic to propionic ratio; and C2 + C4/C3: acetic plus butyric to propionic ratio.