Comparison of in Vivo and in Vitro Techniques in Ruminology Studies

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Abstract
During in vivo and in vitro studies, succinate, DL-aspartate, glucose, and maltose were readily fermented by rumen microorganisms, and volatile fatty acids (VFA) were produced. The amino acids DL-lysine, DL-alanine, and glycine, were not appreciably degraded to VFA by rumen bacteria. In vivo and in vitro washed cell suspension (WCS) experiments showed qualitative agreement with DL-lysine, DL-alanine, and glycine and the in vivo studies using DL-aspartate and succinate agreed with the WCS in vitro studies of earlier workers. With the substrates glucose and maltose, in vitro WCS experiments were both variable and in disagreement with the in vivo studies. The WCS technique was most useful for studying short one- or two-step reactions presumed to occur in the rumen and loses significance when studying multistep metabolic reactions..