A respiration-metabolism chamber system for measuring gas emission and nutrient digestibility in small ruminant animals ¤ Sistema de cámaras respiro-metabólicas para medición de gases y digestibilidad de nutrientes en pequeños rumiantes Um sistema de câmara de respiração e metabolismo para medição de emissões de gás e digestibilidade de nutrientes em pequenos ruminantes

Summary A novel chamber system was developed to measure gas emission from small ruminants and to measure nutrient digestibility simultaneously. Animal behavior can also be easily observed in this system through transparent panels. The system is composed of respiration-metabolism chambers, gas sampling and analysis units, and a data acquisition unit. A recovery test was performed using standard methane (CH 4 ) gas. Values for recovery rate of CH 4 gas ranged from 96.7 to 99.6% in 8 replications, and the mean value was 98.1% (coefficient of variation = 1.3%). A preliminary animal experiment was also conducted using 4 Korean native black goats with a mean body weight of 23.5 kg. The goats consumed a 50:50 mixture of forage and concentrate, and daily feed allowance was 2% body weight. Dry matter digestibility was 70.9%, and the mean CH 4 gas production was 11.6 g/day that was calculated to be 24.7 g/kg dry matter intake. Using this system, researchers can accurately and efficiently conduct various experiments measuring methane emission, nutrient digestibility, or both in small ruminant animals including goats, sheep, and deer.