U.S. flagAn official website of the United States government
                    Here's how you know **Official websites use .gov**
                            
                            A **.gov** website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
 **Secure .gov websites use HTTPS**
                            
                            A **lock** (                            
                              A locked padlock                                                      
                            
                            ) or **https://** means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Menu Agricultural Research Service
						
                    U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
 Cell Wall Biology and Utilization Research: Madison, WI
 close



    Research

                    Research Projects
                                    Publications
                                    Collaborations
                                    News
                People

                    Staff Listing
                                    CareersSearch small
                    Search
            
            ARS Home
                                About ARS
                                Contact Us




ARS Home Midwest Area Madison, Wisconsin U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center Cell Wall Biology and Utilization Research Research Publications at this Location





- ARS National Programs
- Search for a scientific manuscript
- Search for a research project
- ARS Software
- Programs and Projects
- Collaborations
- Subjects of Investigation
- Publications

Title:   Author  item
                                            Hall, Mary Beth
  Submitted to: Brazilian Journal of Animal Science
                                    Publication Type: Proceedings
                                    Publication Acceptance Date: 5/15/2007
                                    Publication  Date: 7/24/2007
                                    Citation: Hall, M. 2007. Methodological challenges in carbohydrate analysis. Proceedings of the 44th Annual Meeting of the Brazilian Society of Animal Science. Brazilian Journal of Animal Science (supplement). 36:359-367.Interpretive Summary:
                                Technical Abstract: Carbohydrates can provide up to 80% of the dry matter in animal diets, yet their specific evaluation for research and diet formulation is only now becoming a focus in the animal sciences.  Partitioning of dietary carbohydrates for nutritional purposes should reflect differences in digestion and fermentation characteristics and effects on animal performance.  Key challenges to designating nutritionally important carbohydrate fractions include classifying the carbohydrates in terms of nutritional characteristics, and selecting analytical methods that describe the desired fraction.  The relative lack of information on digestion characteristics of various carbohydrates and their interactions with other fractions in diets means that fractions will not soon be perfectly established.  Developing a system of carbohydrate analysis that could be used across animal species could enhance the utility of analyses and amount of data that we can obtain on dietary effects of carbohydrates.  Based on quantities present in diets and apparent effects on animal performance, some nutritionally important classes of carbohydrates that may be valuable to measure include sugars, starch, fructans, insoluble fiber, and soluble fiber.  Essential to selection of methods for these fractions is agreement on precisely what carbohydrates should be included in each.  Each of these fractions has analyses that could potentially be used to measure them, but most of the available methods have weaknesses that must be evaluated to see if they are fatal and the assay is unusable, or if the assay still may be made workable.  Factors we must consider as we seek to analyze carbohydrates to describe diets include:  Does the assay accurately measure the desired fraction? Is the assay for research, regulatory, or field use (affects considerations of acceptable costs and throughput)?  What are acceptable accuracy and variability of measures?  Is the assay robust (enhances accuracy of values)?  For some carbohydrates, we may have to accept that there are currently no acceptable, widely applicable analyses that meet these criteria, and seek to fill this analytical gap.  Overall, there are good possibilities for accomplishing the nutritional partitioning of carbohydrates.  But to ensure that this is done well, as a discipline, we need to continue our discussions on the basis for partitioning, on what fractions are actually significant, and rigorously evaluate proposed analyses to verify that they are analytically sound.


Return to top


Connect with ARS Sign up


ARS Home
                            USDA.gov
                            Plain Writing
                            Policies & Links
                            Civil Rights Statements
                            FOIA
                            Accessibility Statement
                            Privacy Policy
                            Non-Discrimination Statement
                            Quality of Information
                            USA.gov
                            WhiteHouse.gov