Abstract
Three sheep fitted with cannulas in the rumen and the caecum were used in a $3{\times}3$ Latin square design to study the changes in ruminal and caecal microbial populations and their metabolite composition with ammoniated rice straw feeding. The 3 diets contained either 80% untreated rice straw (UTS) or ammoniated rice straw (ATS) and 20% formula feed. These were a control diet (C), a urea supplemented diet (U) containing urea at 1.1% and an ammoniated rice straw diet (AT). Data were analyzed by analysis of variance and means separated by the Student Neumann Kuel's multiple comparison. AT feeding increased ruminal bacterial counts, in particular cellulolytic bacterial counts (p < 0.05) which were 1.8, 2.4 and 7.0 (${\times}10^6/ml$ ruminal fluid) for C, U and AT, respectively. There was an increasing tendency (p < 0.10) in ruminal fungal population with U; values were 2.0, 5.2, 3.1 (${\times}10^3/ml$ ruminal fluid) for C, U and AT, respectively. Ruminal protozoa counts were not significantly (p > 0.05) altered with diets. Caecal total viable bacterial count with AT was about thrice the value with C. Total VFA concentration in the rumen was significantly increased (p < 0.025) (7.7 mmol/dl for C and 8.2 mmol/dl for AT) and correspondingly, pH lowered when AT was fed. Sheep on AT tended to produce less acetate and more butyrate in the rumen without significance (p > 0.05). Similar to the rumen, total VFA concentrations of 4.4, 3.8 and 5.2 mmol/dl were detected, respectively, for C, U and AT. Caecal ammonia-nitrogen concentrations were about six-fold of that in the rumen, though there were no differences (p > 0.05) among treatments.