Potencial de produção de gás metano e dióxido de carbono in vitro dos ingredientes utilizados em dietas para ovinos

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the potential of CH4 and CO2 in vitro production of soybean hulls, sunflower meal, corn, citrus pulp and corn silage. Four rumencannulated sheep were fed diets containing the evaluated ingredients at 40:60 forage:concentrate ratio. The gases produced by samples incubation were measured by injection into a gas chromatograph equipped with flame ionization detector. The experimental design was completely randomized with repeated measures, with three replicates for each evaluated food at four different periods. Under the experimental conditions, we verified different potential gas production among the ingredients. The citrus pulp meal was the ingredient with the greatest potential for CO2production. Corn silage and soybean hulls showed the greatest potential while citrus pulp and sunflower meal showed the least potential for CH4 production, when expressed in mL/g of degraded dry matter; therefore, they can be considered, among the evaluated ingredients, those with the lowest environmental impact.