Abstract
ABSTRACTThis study investigated the effects of three forage treatments [herbal plantain (PL), ryegrass-white clover pasture (RW) and root crop fodder beet (FB)] on ex-vivo rumen fluid fermentations. Quantitative real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) and PCR-single-stranded conformation polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) analyses were undertaken for aliquots collected from the fermentations. The FB treatment had the highest volatile fatty acid (VFA) and lowest pH compared with other treatments. The RW culture that had a higher fibre content, had higher Fibrobacter succinogenes(F. succinogenes) and anaerobic fungi levels when compared with the FB and PL. Protozoans were however the most abundant microorganisms in the FB cultures, and they had the highest water-soluble carbohydrate (WSC) content. The abundance of F. succinogenes increased in the RW fermentation up to 12 h, and the abundance of anaerobic fungi increased in the RW fermentation up to 24 h. In all the treatments, no effect was found on the overall abundance of bacteria. The findings confirmed that changes in rumen microbial community and fermentation products are partly related to the WSC and fibre content of two novel forages (i.e. PL and FB) increasingly used in animal production.
Highlights
The rumen is a diverse microbial ecosystem comprising bacteria, archaea, protozoa, and fungi (Jami and Mizrahi 2012; Newbold et al 2015)
Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)-SSCP and real-time PCR techniques would provide an improved understanding of how rumen microbial populations and communities change when incubating ex-vivo derived rumen fluid in a liquor with different forages
The results suggest protozoans were the dominant type of microorganism in the fodder beet (FB) cultures, but that anaerobic fungi were the dominant microorganisms in the ryegrass/white clover pasture (RW) and PL cultures
Summary
The rumen is a diverse microbial ecosystem comprising bacteria, archaea, protozoa, and fungi (Jami and Mizrahi 2012; Newbold et al 2015). Tajima et al (2001) made the first attempt to quantify ruminal microorganism populations using a real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) technique They concluded the approach could offer a sensitive, efficient, simple and reliable means of quantifying populations. This PCR approach is widely used (Fernando et al 2010; Leng et al 2011; Thoetkiattikul et al 2013) and adapted for use in this study to quantify ruminal microorganism changes induced by three different feeds. PCR-SSCP and real-time PCR techniques would provide an improved understanding of how rumen microbial populations and communities change when incubating ex-vivo derived rumen fluid in a liquor with different forages. This study was designed to compare diverse forages used in New Zealand animal production: commonly used perennial ryegrass/white clover pasture (RW; Cheng et al 2016) and with two increasingly popular forages [herbal plantain (PL; Cheng et al 2017) and root crop fodder beet (FB; Jenkinson et al 2014)], for in-vitro fermentation and microbial dynamics
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