A cellulase digestion technique for predicting the dry matter digestibility of grasses

Abstract

A digestion technique using a commercially-available crude cellulase preparation from Trichoderma viride is described. The enzyme showed cellulase, hemicellulase and proteolytic activity when tested on herbage or herbage polysaccharides. A high correlation (r = 0.92, P < 0.001, residual standard deviation 2.5) was found between a simple one stage enzyme digestion and in vivo dry matter digestibility for a range of grass species and varieties. In vitro dry matter digestibility and detergent fibre were also determined on the same samples and the results correlated with in vivo dry matter digestibility. The cellulase method is rapid and reproducible and particularly well suited for the evaluation of plant material in breeding programmes.

Feed value of some halophytic range plants of arid regions of Iran

“…Digestibility of dry matter and organic matter was determined by the two-stage in vitro method (Jones & Hayward 1973) using cellulose and pepsin enzymes. In order to control the precision of this method some standard samples of known in vivo digestibility were included in the determination.…”

The use of the cellulase digestion procedure for indexing the dry matter digestibility of forages

“…There are a number of variations in the procedures detailed in the literature (Jones & Hayward, 1973, 1975Goto & Minson, 1977;McLeod & Minson, 1978;Anon., 1984). Most of these relate to (1) the duration and temperature of incubation, (2) the volume of acid-pepsin and cellulase-buffer, (3) the composition of the buffer and (4) the order of the two incubation solutions.…”

“…Work conducted in Wales and Australia has led to the development of a modified two-stage technique in which a cellulase enzyme replaces rumen liquor in the digestion process (Jones & Hayward, 1973, 1975Goto & Minson, 1977). Using this method McLeod & Minson (1978) have studied the effect of incubation time, temperature, sample size, cellulase concentration, and grinding size on the accuracy of the technique for predicting in vitro digestibility (here in vitro refers to digestibility determinations of forages from feeding trials).…”

Heritability of Physical Properties and Other Quality Traits in Timothy

“…(Stratton et al 1979), and reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea L.) (Marum et al 1979). In timothy, genetic variability was reported for crude protein (CP) and in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) (Berg and Hill 1983), IVDMD decline (McElroy and Christie 1986), and dry matter yield (Faris 1970 (Jones and Hayward 1973), acid detergent fiber (ADF) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) (Goering and Van Soest 1970), and three physical properties: packed volume (PV), water retention (WR) and water solubility (WS) (Seoane et al , 1982. The procedure used by Seoane et al (1982) Estimates of heritability from the parental clones ranged from 0.49 to 0.78 (Table 2).…”