Investigating the Effect of Commercial Product NPN on Dairy Cows In Vitro

Subject Areas : Journal of Animal Biology

Amin dindar safa ¹ , Mehdi Dehghan Benadaky ² , Hamed Khalilvandi Behrouzyar ³ , Mahdi Ganjkhanloo ⁴

1 - Department of Animal Sciences, Faculties of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Tehran University, Karaj, Iran
2 - Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran
3 - Department of Animal Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran
4 - Department of Animal Science, University College of Agriculture & Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran.

Received: 2025-02-02 Accepted : 2025-04-13 Published : 2025-07-02

Keywords: Gas production, Non-protein nitrogen, Nutrient disappearance, Polymer, Slow-release urea,

Abstract :

 This experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of replacing soybean meal with slow-release urea on in vitro fermentation, gas production parameters, and nutrient disappearance. In this experiment, five dietary treatments were arranged in a completely randomized design including 1) control diet (without urea); 2) diet containing 0.5% CU instead of SBM; 3) diet containing 0.5% SRU instead of SBM; 4) diet containing 0.1% CU instead of SBM; and 5) diet containing 0.1% SRU instead of SBM. The gas production rate of the experimental diets was measured using the standard water displacement method at time series of 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, 24, 36, 48, 72, and 96 hours of incubation. Gas production parameters and nutrient disappearance rates were measured and calculated in vitro using a modified gas production technique. After 8 hours of incubation, the highest volume and potential of gas production was significantly related to the diet containing 0.5% SRU instead of SBM (P<0.05). The lowest gas production rate constant was obtained for the fourth diet, which had the highest concentration of conventional urea (0.038 ml/h, P<0.05). The value of the partitioning factors was significant among the experimental diets and the highest value was for the control diet. The highest amount of metabolizable energy was found in the diet containing 0.5% SRU instead of SBM, equal to 6.23 Mj/kg dry matter. Significantly, the highest and lowest amounts of short-chain fatty acids were obtained for the third diet containing 0.5% SRU instead of SBM and the diet containing 0.1% CU instead of SBM, respectively (0.641 vs. 0.513% mmol/l, P<0.05). The percentage of dry matter and crude protein disappearance at 12, 24, and 48 hours of incubation had significant differences among the experiment.

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