“…Considering that the different individual proteins differ in amino acid compo sition and degradation rate within a feed, it is not surprising that in situ investiga tions of individual amino acid degradation have revealed differences in the ex tent of ruminal degradation between individual amino acids in numerous studies (Crooker et al, 1986;Susmel et al, 1989;Antoniewicz et al, 1992;Boila and Ingalls, 1992;Skorko-Sajko et al, 1994;Dakowski et al, 1996;Skiba et al, 1996;Weisbjerg et al, 1996), but in other investigations notable differences have not been observed (Varvikko et al, 1983;Weakley et al, 1983;van Stralen et al, 1997;Piepenbrink and Schingoethe, 1998). Rates of deamination of free amino acids in the rumen have been investigated by Chalupa (1976), who found that lysine, phenylalanine, leucine and isoleucine were broken down at 0.2 to 0.3 mmol h 1 , while arginine and threonine were more labile (0.5-0.9 mmol h 1 ) , methionine and valine were more stabile and deaminated at rates between 0.1 to 0.14 mmol h 1 .…”