Use of an in vitro rumen gas production technique to evaluate microbial fermentation of ruminant feeds and its impact on fermentation products

In vitro techniques are routinely used to evaluate the nutritional quality of feeds due to their convenience, adaptability and efficiency. In recent years, research on nutritional evaluation of feeds using in vitro techniques has gained wider acceptance due to its ease of adoption, repeatability, minimized use of animals and the decrease in funding for in vivo evaluation of feeds. In vitro rumen gas techniques have gained popularity as a research tool, versus other in vitro techniques, due to their ability to provide kinetic data that describes extent and rate of digestion from single sample incubation. Uses of an in vitro rumen gas technique to assess ruminant feeds and feeding systems are summarized to show that the technique has potential application to many new areas of ruminant nutritional research.