Application of near-infrared spectroscopy in ruminant nutrition

Near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) is one of the most promising methods for evaluating the nutritional value of animal feed because of its advantages of rapid, green, convenient, and non-destructive analysis. This study briefly describes the effectiveness and accuracy of NIRS in the determination of feed nutrient content, the identification and quantitative analysis of feed adulteration, feed degradation, and digestion and metabolism in animals, and the prediction of feed intake of ruminants, and points out that the existing models should be continuously optimized in the future. Finally, it is concluded that NIRS combined with chemometrics has high accuracy and stability in the determination of nutrient content, adulteration identification, and quantitative analysis of feed. On the other hand, its accuracy in the determination of feed degradation and digestibility and feed intake prediction needs to be further improved.