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Rumen Volatile Acids of Normal, Ketotic, and Fasted Cows^{1, 2,}

Dairy Department, University of Maryland, College Park

ABSTRACT

A major portion of the digestible carbohydrates of feedstuffs fed to ruminants is dissimilated in the rumen to acetic, propionic, and n-butyric acids (13, 18). Lactic acid is an intermediate in some of these degradations and may be present in the rumen under certain conditions (17, 18). After absorption from the rumen, these acids and their derivatives become the principal metabolic fuels for ruminants. Acetic acid may have a glucose-sparing effect when oxidized to provide energy (1), or may contribute to the blood ketones by condensation to acetoacetic acid (9). Propionic acid is apparently converted to glucose quantitatively (19, 20) and is an important exogenous source of glucose in ruminants (6, 10). Lactic acid also is glycogenic and is rapidly absorbed from the rumen when it is present there (5). Butyric acid is metabolized to acetoacetic acid by rumen epithelium (16) and, is therefore, ketogenic, but Kleiber et al. (11) have demonstrated a surprising conversion of butyrate to carbohydrate in the cow.

¹ Scientific Article No. A595, Contribution No. 2768, of the Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station.

² A portion of this work was reported at the Forty-eighth Annual Meeting of the American Dairy Science Association, June, 1953.

³ Present address: Department of Dairy Science, University of Illinois, Urbana.