The chromium-51 complex of ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid as a soluble rumen marker

Abstract

In experiments on digestive function in ruminants, markers can be used to estimate the rate of movement of digesta, the volume of a viscus and the rates of absorption of solutes from the gut. The most widely used water-soluble marker is polyethylene glycol (PEG), which was introduced by Sperber, HydCn & Ekman (1953). They found that the polymer with mean molecular weight 4000 was not degraded in the gut or absorbed, and described the use of PEG for the three purposes set out above.