Abstract
Cardoon meal is a by-product of oil extraction from the seeds of Cynara cardunculus and can serve as a novel alternative feedstuff for ruminants. This study examined the rumen fermentation, biohydrogenation of fatty acids (FA) and microbial community in lambs fed a concentrate diet containing 15% dehydrated lucerne (CON, n = 8) or cardoon meal (CMD, n = 7) for 75 days pre-slaughter. Diets did not influence rumen fermentation characteristics and the abundance of bacteria, methanogens, fungi, or protozoa. Rumen digesta in CMD-fed lambs displayed a higher concentration of total saturated FA and lower total odd- and branched-chain FA and monounsaturated FA. Feeding CMD decreased total trans-18:1 isomer and the ratio of trans-10 to trans-11 C18:1, known as the “trans-10 shift”. Amplicon sequencing indicated that the rumen bacterial community in CMD-fed lambs had lower diversity and a higher relative phyla abundance of Proteobacteria at the expense of Bacteroidetes and Fibrobacteres. At the genus level, CMD mediated specific shifts from Prevotella, Alloprevotella, Solobacterium and Fibrobacter to Ruminobacter, suggesting that these genera may play important roles in biohydrogenation. Overall, these results demonstrate that cardoon meal can be used as a feedstuff for ruminants without negatively affecting rumen fermentation and microbiota but its impact on biohydrogenation may influence the FA composition in meat or milk.
Highlights
Cardoon meal is a by-product of oil extraction from the seeds of Cynara cardunculus and can serve as a novel alternative feedstuff for ruminants
Bacteria strains belonging to the genera Clostridium, Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, Lactobacillus, Propionibacterium, Pseudobutyrivibrio, Bifidobacterium, Eubacterium, Roseburia, Enterococcus and Pediococcus have been implicated in the isomerization or hydration-dehydration process of converting unsaturated fatty acids (FA) to conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) as an intermediate[14]
In agreement with our study, we found a similar increase in odd- and branched-chain fatty acids (OBCFA) in the rumen digesta of CON-fed lambs, accompanied by a higher abundance of Fibrobacter and Prevotella genera, confirming that these bacterial groups could be involved in the synthesis of OBCFA intermediates
Summary
Cardoon meal is a by-product of oil extraction from the seeds of Cynara cardunculus and can serve as a novel alternative feedstuff for ruminants. CMD mediated specific shifts from Prevotella, Alloprevotella, Solobacterium and Fibrobacter to Ruminobacter, suggesting that these genera may play important roles in biohydrogenation Overall, these results demonstrate that cardoon meal can be used as a feedstuff for ruminants without negatively affecting rumen fermentation and microbiota but its impact on biohydrogenation may influence the FA composition in meat or milk. We reported in a companion paper that feeding cardoon meal induced specific changes in the intramuscular fatty acid profile of lambs by reducing the concentration of potentially health-promoting RBH intermediates (trans-11 C18:1 and cis-9, trans-11 CLA) and decreased the ratio of trans-10 18:1 to trans-11 18:1, known as the “trans-10 shift”[7]. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of dietary cardoon meal on ruminal fermentation and RBH, and to utilize next-generation sequencing to characterize changes in the rumen bacterial community
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