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Use of sodium sulfite to reduce nitrogenous contamination in fiber analysis was evaluated. The effects of sodium sulfite on analytical accuracy and precision were examined for amylase-treated neutral detergent fiber (aNDF), sequentially determined acid detergent fiber (sADF), and acid detergent lignin (sADL) in animal feeds. In one experiment, 0.5 g sodium sulfite was added per sample during neutral detergent (ND) extraction. The treatment consistently reduced aNDF, sADF, and sADL values of 180 alfalfa samples and improved precision (decreased within-sample variance of replicated analyses). The greatest effect was on precision of sADL analysis, with within-sample variance reduced by more than 50%. In a second experiment, 24 animal feeds were analyzed for a aNDF, sADF, and sADL with and without addition of 0.5 g sodium sulfite per sample during ND extraction. Nitrogen contents of the recovered fiber fractions were determined. Sodium sulfite reduced fiber and lignin values and decreased nitrogen concentration in residues. Within-sample variance was lower in all analyses. In a third experiment, 23 animal feeds were analyzed for aNDF with sodium sulfite at 0, 0.25, 0.5, and 1.0 g per sample. Average aNDF of feeds was reduced by each additional increment of sodium sulfite; however, 1.0 g sodium sulfite resulted in only a slight reduction in aNDF compared with 0.5 g. Therefore, 0.5 g sodium sulfite per sample should be added to samples prior to aNDF analysis.
Hintz et al. (Mon,) studied this question.