Table 3.

Effect of supplementation of Piper sarmentosum (PS) leaf meal on ruminal fermentation, rumen microorganisms and blood metabolite.

Item	Concentrations of PS Sup., g/d				SEM	P	Contrast
	0	0.6	1.2	2.4			Lin.	Qua.
Rumen ecology
Ruminal pH
0 h after feeding	7.13	7.01	7.18	7.06	0.10	0.66	ns	ns
4 h after feeding	6.97	6.99	7.02	6.9	0.06	0.61	ns	ns
Mean	7.05	7.00	7.10	6.98	0.06	0.58	ns	ns
Ruminal temperature, °C
0 h after feeding	39.46	39.45	39.71	38.60	0.95	0.74	ns	ns
4 h after feeding	40.70	40.26	40.21	39.96	0.68	0.50	ns	ns
Mean	40.08	39.86	39.96	39.28	0.49	0.68	ns	ns
NH3-N concentration, mg/dL
0 h after feeding	13.00	13.25	13.00	14.05	0.17	0.51	ns	ns
4 h after feeding	14.50	14.25	15.50	15.50	0.13	0.52	ns	ns
Mean	13.75	13.75	14.25	14.78	0.11	0.49	ns	ns
Blood urea nitrogen, mg/dl
0 h after feeding	10.51	11.01	10.98	11.21	1.19	0.41	ns	ns
4 h after feeding	11.21	12.11	11.25	12.31	1.47	0.42	ns	ns
Mean	10.86	11.56	11.12	11.76	1.23	0.37	ns	ns
Ruminal microbes, cell/mL
Bacteria, ×109
0 h after feeding	1.00	1.08	1.07	1.04	0.53	0.71	ns	ns
4 h after feeding	1.17	1.15	1.09	1.05	0.45	0.41	ns	ns
Mean	1.09	1.12	1.08	1.05	0.40	0.97	ns	ns
Protozoa, ×106
0 h after feeding	9.05 a	5.00 b	6.26 b	3.12 c	1.30	0.03	0.01	ns
4 h after feeding	9.25 a	6.25 b	6.37 b	3.50 c	1.67	0.04	0.04	ns
Mean	9.15 a	5.63 b	6.32 b	3.31 c	1.54	0.01	0.02	ns

^a–c Values within the same row not bearing a common superscript differ (p < 0.05); ns = non-significant; Sup. = Supplementation; Qua. = Quadratic; Lin. = Linear.