Table 2.
Effect of dietary treatment on DMI, reticular pH, daily average of time spent below the three reticular pH thresholds, ruminal volatile fatty acid (VFA) N-NH3 and lipopolysaccharides (LPS)
| Treatment 1 | SEM | P -value | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Item | CT | FM | PM | ||
| DMI, 2 kg/d | 14.5a | 13.4b | 14.7a | 0.62 | 0.021 |
| Reticular pH | |||||
| Average | 6.04 | 6.11 | 6.09 | 0.067 | 0.466 |
| Maximum | 6.61 | 6.54 | 6.55 | 0.063 | 0.569 |
| Nadir | 5.40b | 5.69a | 5.62ab | 0.106 | 0.037 |
| pH <5.6, 3 min | 199a | 16b | 18b | - | 0.022 |
| pH <5.8, 3 min | 360 | 190 | 171 | - | 0.311 |
| pH <6.3, min | 1156 | 1118 | 1071 | 86.4 | 0.546 |
| VFA, mM | |||||
| Acetate | 59.2 | 60.9 | 60.6 | 3.60 | 0.911 |
| Propionate | 26.5 | 30.8 | 27.9 | 2.07 | 0.249 |
| Butyrate | 10.5 | 10.7 | 9.8 | 0.69 | 0.683 |
| Ac:Pr4 | 2.05α | 1.66β | 1.77αβ | 0.125 | 0.048 |
| N-NH3, mg/dL | 50.1 | 54.5 | 31.1 | 9.70 | 0.303 |
| LPS5, 6, × 103 EU/mL | 15.7 | 6.0 | 8.9 | (5.3–16.7) | 0.172 |
1Treatments: control diet (CT); fumarate-malate mixture (FM); polyphenol-essential oil mixture (PM).
2For DMI the repeated effect of day was significant (P <0.001).
3 P-values and superscript letters (a, b: P <0.05) are given by using the non-parametric Kruskal–Wallis test and the Dunn’s multiple pairwise comparison.
4Acetate to propionate ratio.
5Statistical analysis was conducted on natural logarithm (ln) transformed data that are presented as ln back transformed and 95%-confidence interval in brackets.
6LPS were reported as endotoxin unit.
a, bMeans with different superscripts within a row differ (P <0.05).
α, βMeans with different superscripts within a row differ (P <0.10).