EFFICACY OF garlic, eucalyptus and neem POWDERS ON RUMEN MODULATION, METHANOGENESIS AND GAS PRODUCTION KINETICS IN WHEAT STRAW BASED DIET EVALUATED in vitro

The present study was carried out with the objectives to evaluate the effect of different plant parts on methane production as rumenfermentation modulators and gas production kinetics by using in vitro gas production technique. Garlic (Allium sativum, T1)Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globules, T2) and Neem (Azadiracta indica, T3) plant part powders were used for the evaluation for their inhibitory action on methane production, rumen fermentation and gasproduction kinetics on three type of wheat straw based diets i.e. high fiber diet (HFD),medium fiber diet (MFD) and low fiber diet(LFD). Methane was estimated by Gas Chromatography and results indicated that the maximum (51.96%) methane reduction was found on the supplementation of garlic powder in HFD as compared to that ofcontrol diet. Partition factor, microbial biomass, acetate to propionate ratio and gas production (b) was increased due to theaddition of garlic powder. Garlic powder also showed the significant (P≤0.05)reduction in protozoa number in all type of diets.