Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 March 2009
Data for the quantity of ammo acids consumed and their flow rates at the proximal duodenum for 33 diets fed to sheep have been statistically analysed by both univariate and multivariate methods. Analysis of variance of net loss (g/day) between mouth and duodenum of individual and total acida was not conclusive. Canonical variate analysis which takes regard of the correlations between different acids both within and between diets provided a conoise method of discriminating between diets. The advantage of this method in generating a unified account of digestion within the rumen is that it effectively reduces the problem from one of many dimensions to a situation where only the first few transformed variables need to be considered.