Encapsulation in rumen bacterial fractions.

Abstract

METHODS of fractionating the rumen contents of sheep previously described in the literature (see, for example, footnote 1) involve centrifugation of uncooled, strained, rumen liquids at varying speeds on centrifuges running at room temperature. These procedures were found by us to be unsatisfactory for two reasons. First, during the time between collection and centrifugation of the liquids, the composition of the sample might alter as a result of bacterial fermentation and autolysis; and secondly, during the centrifugation, especially at high speeds, the liquids warm up to as much as 40° C., thus setting up convection currents in the centrifugate and causing fermentation with the liberation of gases which break up the sediments. We have found that these difficulties are overcome by the following procedure, which allows of fractionation on a small scale.