Table 7.

Effect of experimental diets on ruminal parameters

Parameter	Treatment diets1				p-value	p-value
	6:4−	4:6−	6:4+	4:6+		Energy level	Additive	Energy level ×additive
pH	6.45±0.05	6.32±0.07	6.46±0.08	6.25±0.09	0.007	0.001	0.550	0.397
NH3-N (mg/100 mL)	6.88±1.17	4.07±1.15	5.99±0.93	6.45±1.33	0.007	0.051	0.211	0.007
Total VFA (mM)	85.65±3.49	86.70±3.63	90.98±3.35	84.73±3.71	0.327	0.312	0.512	0.157
Acetate (mM)	60.30±2.27	59.96±2.34	64.47±2.27	56.14±2.43	0.026	0.024	0.925	0.037
Propionate (mM)	13.50±0.69	13.90±0.78	14.35±0.67	16.40±1.11	0.011	0.022	0.002	0.119
iso-butyrate (mM)	0.78±0.05	0.74±0.07	0.71±0.05	0.62±0.04	0.089	0.145	0.044	0.521
n-butyrate (mM)	9.21±0.51	9.90±.51	9.55±0.46	9.81±0.57	0.113	0.934	0.253	0.031
iso-valerate (mM)	0.98±0.06	1.13±0.07	1.03±0.06	1.01±0.05	0.115	0.147	0.461	0.067
n-valerate (mM)	0.88±0.05	1.06±0.09	0.86±0.04	1.75±0.24	<0.001	<0.001	0.001	0.001
A/P ratio	4.53±0.08	4.40±0.11	4.55±0.10	3.68±0.25	<0.001	<0.001	0.004	0.002

VFA, volatile fatty acid; A/P, acetate/propionate.

¹6:4 and 4:6 stand for low and high energy level diets; ⁺ and ⁻ stand for presence or absence of dietary feed additive, respectively.

Values are mean±standard error of the mean (n = 4).