TABLE 2.

Fiber degradation in the sheep rumen contents pre- and postinoculation of R. albus and R. flavefaciens^a

Sheep and degradation process	Amt of lucerne (% (w/w) dry matter initial feed)		Amt of wheat straw cell walls (% (w/w) dry matter initial feed)
	wk 23	wk 30	wk 25	wk 32
Sheep 421
DMdis	20 ± 5 A	26 ± 2 B	19 ± 4 X	20 ± 2 X
NDFdis	12.5 ± 0.7 A	16.8 ± 0.2 B	18.1 ± 0.4	18.7 ± 0.2
ADFdis	9.2 ± 0.7 A	11.8 ± 0.2 B	10.9 ± 0.3	11.5 ± 0.4
Sheep 455
DMdis	28 ± 1 A	26 ± 1 A	18 ± 2 X	7 ± 3 Y
NDFdis	17.5 ± 0.1 A	16.0 ± 0.2 B	19.2 ± 0.4 A	8.2 ± 1.1 B
ADFdis	13.7 ± 0.1 A	11.7 ± 0.1 B	11.2 ± 0.3 A	5.5 ± 0.2 B

^aDMdis was measured from series of bags containing plant materials and incubated in the rumen for 24 h during either weeks 23 and 25 of period 1 or weeks 30 and 32 of period 2. The data obtained from the two animals were not averaged because at week 30 and week 32, the abundances of the three cellulolytic species had not evolved in the same manner in the two sheep as evidenced in Fig. 2. DMdis values are the means ± SD of the data obtained for each animal and each plant material. Different letters after the values indicate significant difference at P < 0.005. NDFdis and ADFdis values are the means of three fiber analysis determinations performed on pooled fermented residues retrieved from each bag series.