In the second round of in vitro trials the Rumen Simulation Technique or RUSITEC was used. This is different from the previous technique in that in this case semicontinuous fermenters were used in which there is a recycling of the culture medium. It thus enables maintaining a culture of stable ruminant microorganisms for longer periods in order to undertake studies for a longer time and thereby observe the persistance of the effects observed with the previous technique, and enable discarding possible adaptive effects of the ruminant microorganisms to chitosan. In these trials the effect of chitosan on rumen fermentation was observed to persist during the incubation time, thus enabling them to discard adaptive effects of the ruminant microorganisms to this compound.

In this way, in vitro trials obtained highly promising results, based on an improvement on the energy efficiency of the rumen fermentation process with fermentations aimed at the production of propionic acid and a reduction in the production of methane during this process of up to 50%.

Experiments with animals

Experiments with animals were carried out a posteriori. In these in vitro trials it was shown that the modulator effect of rumen fermentation that had been observed in vitro was also observed when the chitosan was administered directly to the animals, obtaining improvements in energy efficiency of the rumen fermentation process without it affecting the digestibility of the ration.

Source: Elhuyar Fundazioa