Dose-response effects of dietary inclusion of agro-industrial by-products on in vitro ruminal fermentation and methane production

Xue, B., Thompson, J., Yan, T., Stergiadis, S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7293-182X, Smith, L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9898-9288 and Theodoridou, K. (2025) Dose-response effects of dietary inclusion of agro-industrial by-products on in vitro ruminal fermentation and methane production. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. ISSN 0022-5142 (In Press)

Abstract/Summary

BACKGROUND: As the agro-industry produces considerable amounts of by-products globally, it is acknowledged to address the environmental issues related to their disposal and the resource competition between food for humans and feed for animals. The aim of this study was to explore in vitro, the effects of various by-products from the agro-industry on rumen fermentation and methane emission. Samples were collected from various food processing industries, including red, green apple pomace (RAP, GAP), hempseed cake (HC), coffee hulls (CH), coffee grounds (CG), spent mushroom compost (SMC), distillers dried Grains with solubles (DDGS). In doses of 100, 200, 300, g/kg, tested by-products were incubated in rumen fluid, where by-products replaced equal amounts of the substrates. RESULTS: Gas production (GP) and dry matter digestibility (DMD) decreased linearly in most of tested by-products with the growth of doses (P < 0.001), while NH3-N concentration increased linearly. Linear decreases were observed in CH4 production with increasing doses of all by-products (P < 0.05). The reduction of CH4 production range from 21.4% to 33.6% at the dose of 100-300 g/kg, but reductions were only observed in dose of 100 g/kg when CH4 productions were corrected by digested dry matter (P < 0.05). RAP, GAP, HC were higher than CH, CG, SMC for the comparison of key parameters including DMD, GP and volatile fatty acids. Better methane-mitigating effects were observed in RAP, GAP and HC than that of Control group and CH, CG and SMC. CONCLUSION: Most of by-products tested were proved to be a potential option for replacing conventional feed ingredients but should not exceed the dose at 200 g/kg.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/122065
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Agriculture, Policy and Development > Department of Animal Sciences Life Sciences > School of Agriculture, Policy and Development > Department of Agri-Food Economics & Marketing
Publisher	Wiley
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