A new technique for measuring size distributions of fine ingesta/digesta particles

Techniques were developed to enable convenient, high-power image analysis o f (ingested) food material. A constant volume of diluted gut sample was del ivered to a large microscope slide before being slowly evaporated in still air to leave all particles statically on the same focal plane. Evaporation also allowed a meniscus to develop around each particle, forcing them to se parate and thereby preventing overlap and aggregation of particles. Sub-sam ples were measured under four high-power magnifications (x2050, x1290, x510 and x190) to permit precise estimates of size distributions of the very sm all particles. The techniques developed avoid the need for large ingesta/di gesta samples, sieving, and filtering, all of which have limited previous s tudies.