Sugar beet pulp is a very common feed for rabbits due to positive effects on microbial fermentation in caecum and thus overall health of the animal. We evaluated the microbial fermentation in caecum with in vitro gas test, where we used caecum content as inoculum and samples predigested in pepsin-HCL and pancreatin- KH2PO4. We measured the amount of produced gas, the maximum fermentation rate (MFR) and time of maximum fermentation rate (tMFR). Results were processed with SAS software and calculated correlations between nutrients of samples. With chemical analysis we determined differences in nutrient contents. Due to those differences, the results of in vitro gas test also varied greatly between samples. Statistically significant correlations were found between content of crude protein (CP) and parameters of constant factor of microbial (in)efficiency (A), specific fermentation rate (C) and MFR and content of nitrogen-free extract (NFE) and parameters A, MFR and tMFR. Regression formulas were statistically significant for parameters A, C, MFR and tMFR with relatively low determination coefficient (R2 from 0,25 to 0,48).
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