. 2019 Oct 25;9(11):863. doi: 10.3390/ani9110863

Table 4.

Ruminal fermentation characteristics in Merino wethers fed total mixed ration containing crude extracts or lipid-encapsulated Acacia tannin extract (ATE) and silvafeed.

Parameter	Control	Silvafeed	ATE ²	Encapsulated ATE	SEM ³	p-Values ⁴
Parameter	Control	Silvafeed	ATE ²	Encapsulated ATE	SEM ³	Diet	ATE vs E-ATE
pH	6.53	6.56	6.66	6.56	0.04	0.37	0.90
NH₃-N, mg/dL	19.4	17.3	13.5	14.3	2.17	0.09	0.80
Total volatile fatty acid (VFA), mmol/L	96.4	104.8	83.6	91.3	7.51	0.33	0.50
VFA molar proportion, mol/100 mol
Acetate	57.2	56.0	54.5	55.8	2.20	0.58	0.69
Propionate	19.4	24.9	27.9	21.2	1.43	0.07	0.02
Butyrate	19.6	15.3	13.0	18.5	2.30	0.62	0.14
Branched-chain VFA ¹	2.48	2.32	2.84	2.90	0.40	0.68	0.18
Valerate	1.42	1.76	1.98	1.92	0.13	0.24	0.75
Acetate: propionate ratio	2.98 ^a	2.32 ^bc	1.99 ^c	2.69 ^ab	0.19	0.04	0.04

¹ Iso-butyrate + Iso-valerate. ² ATE, Acacia tannin extract. ³ SEM, standard error of means ⁴ ATE vs E-ATE, contrast comparison between Acacia tannin and Encapsulated-ATE diets. LSMeans with different superscript across a row are significantly different at p < 0.05.