Effects of Microwave Irradiation on Ruminal Protein Degradation of Tomato Pomace

This study was conducted to evaluate effects of 1000W microwave irradiation for 2.5 and 5 min on ruminal Crude Protein (CP) degradation parameters of tomato pomace. Nylon bags filled with 5 g of each of untreated or microwave treated tomato pomace, were suspended in the rumen of three fistulated Gezel rams for 0, 4, 8, 12, 16, 24, 36, 48 and 72 h, and obtained data were fitted to a non-linear degradation model to calculate ruminal degradation characteristics. Microwave treatments significantly decreased protein degradability of tomato pomace on different incubation times. Although microwave irradiation decreased (p<0.05) the water soluble fraction (a) and increased (p<0.05) the potentially degradable fraction (b) of CP, but constant rate of degradation (c), total degradability (a+b) and Effective Rumen Degradability of Protein (ERDP) were not significantly affected by microwave irradiation. The effect of 5 min irradiation on decreasing water soluble fraction of CP was higher than that of 2.5 min. In conclusion, microwave irradiation reduced protein solubility in the rumen, but could not significantly affect the extent of escape protein of tomato pomace.