. 2022 May 4;9:833881. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2022.833881

Table 5.

Effect of supplemental HMBi on ruminal and cecal fermentation of beef cattle.

Item	Treatment¹			SEM²	P -value³
	H₀	H₁₅	H₃₀		Linear	Quadratic
Rumen
pH (56 d)	5.84	6.05	6.09	0.09	0.086	0.484
pH (105 d)	6.09	6.14	6.22	0.09	0.309	0.896
NH₃-N,⁵ mg/dL	10.13	11.58	9.61	0.97	0.711	0.175
Acetate	60.66	55.85	61.72	3.62	0.839	0.252
Propionate	19.39	18.80	20.60	1.43	0.559	0.507
Butyrate	10.06	9.44	10.46	0.56	0.623	0.258
Valerate	1.12	1.09	1.18	0.11	0.700	0.647
Isovalerate	1.21	1.19	1.25	0.11	0.822	0.741
Total VFA	95.55	89.28	98.20	5.59	0.743	0.289
Acetate/propionate	3.11	2.91	3.00	0.10	0.444	0.275
Cecum
pH	6.92	6.97	6.88	0.41	0.548	0.157
NH₃-N,⁵ mg/dL	2.13^a	1.84^ab	1.68^b	0.14	0.028	0.696
Acetate	32.98	30.18	26.77	0.45	0.103	0.912
Propionate	8.92^a	7.78^ab	6.56^b	0.12	0.011	0.955
Isobutyrate	0.97^a	0.91^ab	0.75^b	0.01	0.044	0.615
Butyrate	2.35^a	1.83^ab	1.54^b	0.04	0.009	0.650
Isovalerate	1.19^a	1.07^ab	0.86^b	0.02	0.024	0.687
Valerate	0.90^a	0.81^ab	0.66^b	0.01	0.039	0.609
Total VFA	47.31	42.59	37.14	0.63	0.031	0.924
Acetate/propionate	3.73	3.91	4.08	0.12	0.056	0.98

Treatments were: H₀, basal diet without MetaSmart^® H₁₅, basal diet supplemented with 15 g/d MetaSmart^® H₃₀, basal diet supplemented with 30 g/d MetaSmart^®.

SEM, standard error of the mean.

Significant at P ≤ 0.05.

⁴VFA, volatile fatty acids.

⁵

NH₃-N, Ammonia-nitrogen.

^{a, b}

Means within a row followed by different lower-case letters differ significantly from each other (P < 0.05).