Abstract
New approaches are needed to improve the sustainability of feed production and utilization by ruminants. Promising approaches include increased use of buffaloes for more sustainable milk production, and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) to reduce crop production input needs. However, studies assessing the effect of crops grown in the presence of AMF on rumen microbial utilization are limited. Based on current knowledge, we hypothesized that maize grain grown on AMF-inoculated soil affected ruminal fermentation and microbiota, and that this effect differed between buffalo and cattle. A dietary cross-over study (four weeks per diet) was conducted using rumen-cannulated cattle (n = 5) and buffalo (n = 6) to assess the effect of maize grain (3.9% (w/v) of diet) grown on soil with or without AMF (15 kg/ha) on ruminal fermentation and microbiota. Production of maize on AMF-treated soil did not affect any of the assessed ruminal fermentation parameters, microbial concentrations, or prokaryotic community composition (using prokaryotic 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis). In contrast, host type had numerous effects. Protozoal counts, lactate, total VFA and isobutyrate, were significantly higher in buffaloes compared to cattle. Conversely, butyrate was significantly lower in buffaloes than in cattle. Host type explained 9.3% of the total variation in prokaryotic community composition, and relative abundance of nine amplicon sequence variants significantly differed between host types. These findings indicate that AMF treatment of maize crops has no detrimental impact on the value of the resulting maize grains as a ruminant feed, and provides additional insight into rumen-based differences between cattle and buffalo.
Highlights
Increasing world population, urbanization, and the growing concern over the environmental impact of animal farming means a long-term global strategy for more intensive and sustainable ruminant production is needed [1]
It was hypothesized that maize grain grown on soil inoculated with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) would affect ruminal fermentation and associated microbiota, and that this effect would differ between buffalo and cattle
This study clearly showed that presence of AMF during production of maize grains had no effect on either host type in terms of ruminal fermentation parameters, microbial concentrations or prokaryotic community composition
Summary
Increasing world population, urbanization, and the growing concern over the environmental impact of animal farming means a long-term global strategy for more intensive and sustainable ruminant production is needed [1]. Ruminant livestock are important for the production of high quantity and quality animal protein (milk and meat) in human diets, and their ability to produce this using fibrous feeds that cannot be used by humans [2]. There is increasing interest in this more sustainable ruminant species for livestock production. This is evidenced by the 15.7% increase in buffalo milk production worldwide compared to 4.09% in dairy cows during 2014–2018 (FAOstat data). In Italy, the increase in the same period was up to 21% This is because in Italy, buffalo milk is used to produce mozzarella cheese which is the third largest Italian DOP (i.e., protected designation of origin) cheese in terms of market value
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