Table 2.

Blood parameters, feed digestibility and microbial protein synthesis in 26-week-old goats measured at 21 days after a shift from a high-concentrate to a full forage diet (oats hay).

Treatments 1	CTL	AUT	RFF	RFC	SED	p-value
BW, kg	24.3	25.1	24.2	23.6	1.383	0.757
Cortisol in hair, ng/mg	1.50	1.53	1.49	1.54	0.144	0.982
Blood metabolites, mmol/L
Glucose	2.86	3.20	2.99	2.89	0.240	0.482
β-hydroxybutyrate	2.63	2.50	2.84	2.17	0.381	0.327
Blood pH	7.30	7.33	7.35	7.33	0.028	0.222
pCO2, mm of Hg	56.0	48.4	46.6	46.8	3.960	0.088
tCO2, mm of Hg	27.0	24.8	25.2	24.3	1.299	0.410
Na+	145	146	146	144	0.817	0.121
K+	4.75	5.03	4.91	4.84	0.174	0.417
HCO3−	25.3	23.4	23.8	22.8	1.217	0.513
Cl−	110	112	111	111	0.758	0.212
Anion Gap 1	14.6	16.2	15.2	15.1	0.814	0.450
Apparent digestibility, %
DM	58.0b	63.3a	62.4a	64.1a	1.856	0.014
OM	59.0b	64.7a	64.1a	65.8a	1.883	0.007
N	45.4	53.1	53.9	52.0	3.790	0.092
NDF	50.6b	59.6a	60.2a	62.7a	2.470	<0.001
ADF	37.3b	48.7a	49.6a	52.8a	3.190	<0.001
Fecal N excretion, g/d	3.33	3.18	2.81	3.04	0.418	0.579
Urinary excretion
Total volume, L/d	2.05	2.49	1.62	1.79	0.271	0.133
N, g/d	9.15	8.65	9.92	8.13	3.840	0.605
Creatinine, μmol/kg BW0.75	195a	133ab	102b	107b	23.70	0.034
PD, mmol/d	13.8a	7.27b	6.80b	5.90b	1.758	<0.001
PD/Creatinine ratio	0.95a	0.94a	0.86ab	0.73b	0.085	0.043
EMPS, mmol PD/kg DOMI	43.1a	23.8b	24.5b	19.0b	4.48	<0.001
In vitro fermentation
Gas production, mmol/d	40.3b	52.6a	51.6a	50.3a	4.02	0.002
CH4, mmol/d	0.22b	0.31a	0.27a	0.28a	0.03	0.006
CH4, mol/mol FOM	6.69	9.17	6.71	7.31	1.257	0.106

BW, body weight; PD, purine derivatives; EMPS, efficiency of microbial protein synthesis; DOMI, digestible OM intake.

¹During the first 10 weeks of age, goats (N = 36) received a daily and oral inoculation with autoclaved rumen fluid (AUT), rumen fluid from adult animals fed forage (RFF), or fed concentrate diets (RFC) or without inoculation (CTL). Means within a raw with different superscript differ (p < 0.05).