The effects of dietary starch and fibre on the in vitro rates of lipolysis and hydrogenation by sheep rumen digesta

The objective of this work was to investigate the effects of changing proportions of readily fermentable carbohydrate and fibre in the diet on the rates of lipolysis and fatty acid hydrogenation by sheep rumen digesta. Three experiments were carried out using rumen-fistulated Romney wethers. In the first experiment rumen digesta from one sheep on a high-fibre diet was incubated in vitro with [1– 14 C]linoleic acid and 0, 0·1, 0·2 and 0·5% sucrose. It was found that sucrose increased the rate of hydrogenation of linoleic acid by up to 40%. In the second experiment five rumen-fistulated Romney wethers were fed five diets according to a latin-square experimental design. These diets had decreasing proportions of fibre (42·8–19·5%) and increasing proportions of starch (12·2–35·7%). Lipolysis and hydrogenation rates decreased significantly with decreasing fibre content which was reflected in the amounts of stearic and octadecenoic acids in the rumen digesta. In the third experiment sheep were fed the high-fibre diet used in the first experiment and the rumen digesta incubated in the presence of 0, 0·15, 0·45, 0·75 and 1·50% starch. Lipolysis rates increased but no effect of added starch on hydrogenation was observed. It was concluded that the short-term addition of energy to the rumen digesta increases lipolysis and hydrogenation rates. However, long-term replacement of fibre by starch results in a reduction of these rates.