Determination of digesta fill and passage rate from nonabsorbed particulate phase markers using the single dosing method

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Abstract
A method is given for analyzing particulate digestive marker data in terms of digesta fill, fecal output, and digesta passage times. The method applies the Stewart – Hamilton Principle to data obtained from a single marker dosing followed by feces sampling; it assumes steady-state conditions for the digesta, but makes no assumptions concerning compartmentalization of digesta. Data analyses are presented for an experiment with sheep in which a particle phase marker, cerium-141 chloride, was used. The estimate of fecal output obtained was 1.8 ± 2.2% (mean percent difference ± SE) greater than the actual fecal output; the in vivo estimate of total digesta fill was 3.3 ± 3.4% less than measured digesta fill. For comparison, the present data were also analyzed using two established compartment modeling approaches, namely a time-independent and a time-dependent two-compartment model. The only significant difference between the estimated parameters as obtained from the Stewart – Hamilton method and the compartmental models was a significantly shorter transit time as estimated by the time-dependent model.