책임운영기관 농촌진흥청 국립축산과학원 (로고)

The objective of the present study was to investigate the effects of different red seaweeds on in vitro rumen fermentation characteristics and methane gas production. Five species of red seaweed (Chrysymenia wrughtii Yamada, CW; Hypnea sp., Hypnea sp.; Chondria crassicaulis, CC; Gelidium vagum Okamurae, GV; Hypnea saidana Holmes, HS) were obtained from National Institute of Fisheries Science (NIFS) in South Korea. The collected red seaweeds were washed for 3 minutes, and then samples were freeze-dried and ground to a size of a 1 millimeter. The buffered ruminal fluid (50 mL) was incubated with substrates and seaweeds (5% of substrates) at 39℃ for 48 hours. Total gas production was lower than red seaweed treatments excluding the CW treatment (p<0.05; 63.25 mL). Methane production was the lowest in CC treatment (p<0.05; 9.93 mL/g of digestible dry matter). The rumen pH of the red seaweed treatments ranged from 5.98 to 6.08, which was significantly the lowest in the GV treatment (p<0.05; 5.98). There was no significant difference in the total VFA concentration, but propionate (27.53%) was significantly highest in the CW treatment, whereas acetate (53.14%), iso-valerate (3.52%), valerate (1.72%), and A:P ratio (1.93) were significantly lowest (p<0.05). In conclusion, among the five species of red seaweeds, Chondria crassicaulis reduced in vitro methane production without negative effects on dry matter digestibility. Future studies will be needed to determine the optimal inclusion level of Chondria crassicaulis as feed additive to reduce enteric methane production.