FECAL NITROGEN DETERMINATION BY NEAR-INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY

The well-known Kjeldahl method for the determination of faecal nitroge n is rather complex, time-consuming and expensive. Therefore, the use of near-infrared spectroscopy in determining the amount of nitrogen in faeces has been studied. To our knowledge we are the first to present the calibration equation for the determination of nitrogen with near- infrared spectroscopy. A good correlation (r = 0.96) was found between results from near-infrared spectroscopy and the Kjeldahl method. The imprecision of both methods was comparable. Once the rather laborious calibration has been performed, near-infrared spectroscopy is shown to be a very simple and rapid method for measuring nitrogen in faeces.