The Effect Of Short-term And Long-term Supplementation Of Monensin On Methane Production And Rumen Fermentation Of Goat

The increasing releasing of greenhouse gases results in the acceleration of globalwarming，and methane is one of the major contributors. The production of methane byruminant accounts for13%of the greenhouse effect. Monensin is one of the bioactivepolyether ionophore antibiotics abstracted from the culture solution of streptomycete. whichcould reduce the production of methane by ruminant and improve the energy efficiency offeed. Our research studied the effect of short-and long-term supplement of monensin onmethane production，rumen fermentation and in situ degradation of alfalfa of goat. Fivehealthy adult goats equipped with rumen fistulas were chosen as the experimental animals；The short-and long-term experiment lasted for20days and50days respectively. Theconcentration of monensin was32mg/kg DM.The results showed that short-term supplementation（20d）could significantly reducedaily methane production and methane production per unit DMI compared to carbon dioxide(P<0.05). While the long-term supplementation had no effect. Short and long termsupplementation of monensin had no effects on DMI and carbon dioxide production. Andmonensin could reduce the concentration of VFA in the rumen of the goats (P<0.05)，decreasethe ratio of butyrate compared to either acetic acid or propanoic acid and increase thepercentage of propanoic acid. Adding monensin could also reduce the24h in situ degradationof alfalfa (P<0.05)，but it has no effects on24h and48h DM，NDF，ADF in situ degradation.Monensin had no effects on rumen pH，concentration of NH3-N，the percentage of aceticacid，as well as the percentage of isobutyric acid and the proportion of either valeric acid orisovaleric acid. The results suggested that the effect of monensin on methane productiondepended on time; short-term and long-term supplementation of monensin could reduce therumen acetic acid/propionic acid value and cellulase activity.