Evaluation of N-alkanes as Faecal Markers to Estimate Diet Composition, Feed Intake, and Digestibility in European Bison (Bison bonasus)

Table 3

Comparison of known and estimated measured proportions of dietary components and dry matter feed intake of bison fed on straw and beeswax labelled concentrate feed.

Diet component	Known (K)	Estimated (E)	E−K	SEM	Effect
Straw	0.453 ± 0.0088	0.473 ± 0.0105	+0.020	0.0056	0.0654
BCF	0.547 ± 0.0088	0.527 ± 0.0105	−0.020	0.0053	0.0550
DMI (kg DM/day)	9.34 ± 0.179	9.69 ± 0.284	+0.35	0.137	0.1404

BCF, beeswax labelled concentrate feed. DMI, dry matter intake. K, known proportions of dietary components. E, estimated proportions of dietary components. SEM, standard error of mean.