Abstract
The criteria used in comparing the utilization of grass silage by reindeer and sheep were rumen pH, ammonia, volatile fatty acids (VFA) and microbes. Rumen samples were taken before feeding, and 2 ½ and 5 ½ hours after the beginning of feeding. Rumen fermentation was lower in the reindeer than in the sheep and differed less between the three sampling times. In the reindeer/the pH of the rumen fluid averaged 6.94 and in the sheep 6.61. The average amounts of NH3—N were 17.0 and 24.2 mg/100 ml rumen fluid and those of total VFA 8.46 and 10.90 mmoles/100ml rumen fluid, respectively. The proportion of acetic acid in the VFA in the reindeer was 75.3 molar % and in the sheep 66.0 molar %, the corresponding values for propionic acid being 18.5 and 22.0 molar % and for butytic acid 4.2 and 8.8 molar %. The number of rumen ciliates in the reindeer averaged 87/mm3 rumen contents and in the sheep 314/ mm3. The numbers of bacteria were 16.0 X 106/mm3, respectively. The proportion of the total microbe mass in the reindeer rumen contents was 1.8 % and in the sheep 2.4 %. The proportions of bacteria in this mass were 87 % and 70 %, respectively. The differences between the reindeer and sheep in the rumen fermentation results and in the numbers of rumen microbiota were nearly all statistically significant (P
Highlights
The principal products of rumen fermentation are ammonia and volatile fatty acids (VFA). Both amounts of these products and the rumen microbial synthesis have been used as criteria, when describing feed utilization by ruminants
Considerable research has been devoted to the dietary factors which affect their amounts and to the proportions of the individual fatty acids
Being only a semi-domestic animal the reindeer has less frequently been chosen for this kind of physiological study
Summary
The principal products of rumen fermentation are ammonia and volatile fatty acids (VFA). The average ammonia values for the reindeer at the different sampling times, 16.8, 18.9 and 15.2 NHj-N mg/100 ml of rumen fluid, were quite near the values in the earlier silage experiment, where they were 14.7—16.4 mg/100 ml (SYRJÄLÄ 1978), but higher than those recorded on lichen feeding, which were 5.6—6.8 mg/100 ml. The ammonia values for the sheep correspond to those in the earlier study (SYRJÄLÄ 1972).
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