The effects of microcrystalline cellulose as a dietary component for lactating dairy cows

Outi Savonen,Juhana Pakkasmaa,Tomasz Stefanski,Päivi Mäntysaari,Piia Kairenius,Marketta Rinne

doi:10.23986/afsci.85089

Abstract

Microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) has several applications in food and pharmaceutical industries but the nutritional value for dairy cows and effects on in vivo digestion are not known. A feeding experiment was conducted using 24 dairy cows. The cows were offered MCC originating from unbleached softwood kraft pulp at 0, 10 or 100 g per kg diet dry matter (DM) to replace barley grain in the diet. The total daily DM intake was on average 25.6 kg and not significantly affected by the diet. Positive effects on rumen fermentation could not be demonstrated in a feeding situation where total mixed ration and a concentrate proportion of 0.50 on DM basis was used. Diet organic matter digestibility was not affected by MCC inclusion but fibre digestibility improved and the additional MCC fibre was virtually completely digested. The production potential of MCC was lower than that of barley grain as daily yields of energy-corrected milk, milk fat and protein, and milk protein concentration decreased when MCC replaced barley grain in the diet. Based on these results, MCC is not recommended as a dietary component for high-yielding dairy cows.

Highlights

Cellulose consists of repeated β-D-glucose units and is the most abundant renewable source of carbohydrates worldwide (Habibi et al 2010)
Grass silage was of good quality based on energy value (D-value 682 g kg-1 dry matter (DM)) and fermentation quality
To the best knowledge of the authors, microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) has not been used as a feed component to lactating dairy cows earlier so we used relatively low level of MCC in the diets to minimize the risk of digestive disorders

Summary

Introduction

Cellulose consists of repeated β-D-glucose units and is the most abundant renewable source of carbohydrates worldwide (Habibi et al 2010). Isolation of the crystalline regions has led to production of different shaped and sized variable functional ingredients including microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) (Habibi et al 2010). The degradation of cellulose fibres derived from high-quality wood pulp with hydrochloric acid was the starting point of commercialization of MCC (Battista 1950). The degree of polymerization of native wood is approximately 10000 while it is typically less than 400 in MCC (Sjöström 1993). The typical particle size of commercial MCC products is in the range of 20–250 μm (Vanhatalo 2017). No more than 10 % of the material has a particle size of less than 5 μm (FAO 2018). MCC includes variable proportions (10–40%) of lignin (Vanhatalo et al 2014)

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Discussion

Conclusion