Studies Involving the Use of Glutamic Acid in Ruminant Nutrition

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
In vitro and in vivo experiments were conducted to determine if supplemental glutamic acid would enhance the nitrogen retention of cattle receiving over 97% of their dietary nitrogen from urea. In vitro results indicated that glutamic acid did not alter the ammonia production from urea and that it was slowly deaminated by rumen microorganisms. In vivo results indicated that the addition of glutamic acid to the urea-purified ration did not improve nitrogen retention over the urea basal ration. The nitrogen retention of both of these rations was significantly less than that when cattle consumed an isolated soy ration. Glutamic acid addition resulted in a significant increase in the molar percent of butyric and higher fatty acids. Glutamic acid was inferior to acetic acid, on an equal carboxyl basis in its ability to neutralize ammonia in the rumen.