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Abstract

Background and Objectives The growth of the ethanol industry has increased the need for alternatives to corn in lactating cow diets. Glycerol has the potential to replace corn in the diet. Due to high potential fermentation of glycerol in the rumen, the study aimed to investigate the efficiency of encapsulation and nano-dispersed techniques to protect glycerol from ruminal degradation and fermentation. Materials and Methods The current study was carried out using batch culture technique using 9 treatments as follow Control diet 50 concentrate 50 roughage, G20 replacing 20 of corn in control diet with glycerol, G30 replacing 30 of corn in control diet with glycerol, G40 replacing 40 of corn in control diet with glycerol, B20 replacing 20 of corn in control diet with glycerol encapsulated beads, B30 replacing 30 of corn in control diet with glycerol encapsulated beads, B40 replacing 40 of corn in control diet with glycerol encapsulated beads, N20 replacing 20 of corn in control diet with nano-dispersed glycerol solution, N30 replacing 30 of corn in control diet with nano-dispersed glycerol solution and N40 replacing 40 of corn in control diet with nano-dispersed glycerol solution. Results The results showed a negative effect of using crude glycerol and encapsulated glycerol beads on ruminal digestibility and pH, while using nano-dispersed solution were similar to control diet. Conclusion It could be concluded that the nano-dispersed glycerol solution might be more effective under rumen condition and fermentation.