A Comparison of Two Techniques for Counting Cellulolytic Rumen Bacteria

SUMMARY: Cellulolytic bacteria were counted by the ‘direct’ method; estimated from the number of clearings produced in films of cellulose-containing agar medium inoculated with high dilutions of rumen ingesta and by the ‘indirect’ method; numbers were calculated from ‘total culturable’ counts on films of a non-specific agar medium and from the percentages of bacteria found to be cellulolytic after isolation in pure culture. The two methods yielded similar results.