Abstract
BackgroundAs the global population continues to grow, competition for resources between humans and livestock has been intensifying. Increasing milk protein production and improving feed efficiency are becoming increasingly important to meet the demand for high-quality dairy protein. In a previous study, we found that milk protein yield in dairy cows was associated with the rumen microbiome. The objective of this study was to elucidate the potential microbial features that underpins feed efficiency in dairy cows using metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, and metabolomics.ResultsComparison of metagenomic and metatranscriptomic data revealed that the latter was a better approach to uncover the associations between rumen microbial functions and host performance. Co-occurrence network analysis of the rumen microbiome revealed differential microbial interaction patterns between the animals with different feed efficiency, with high-efficiency animals having more and stronger associations than low-efficiency animals. In the rumen of high-efficiency animals, Selenomonas and members of the Succinivibrionaceae family positively interacted with each other, functioning as keystone members due to their essential ecological functions and active carbohydrate metabolic functions. At the metabolic level, analysis using random forest machine learning suggested that six ruminal metabolites (all derived from carbohydrates) could be used as metabolic markers that can potentially differentiate efficient and inefficient microbiomes, with an accuracy of prediction of 95.06%.ConclusionsThe results of the current study provided new insights into the new ruminal microbial features associated with feed efficiency in dairy cows, which may improve the ability to select animals for better performance in the dairy industry. The fundamental knowledge will also inform future interventions to improve feed efficiency in dairy cows.2fNfKsiaKwf1Ab-9aEYLYCVideo .
Highlights
As the global population continues to grow, competition for resources between humans and livestock has been intensifying
The rumen microbiome is responsible for the deconstruction and fermentation of feed plant fibers and converts plant materials to volatile fatty acids (VFAs), which serve as the main energy source for ruminants [10]
Rumen fermentation characteristics, and metagenomic and metatranscriptomic data statistics Dry matter intake was similar between the HiEf and the LoEf cows (P = 0.444), but milk yield, feed conversion rate (FCR), and N efficiency were higher (P < 0.05) in the HiEf cows than in the LoEf cows (Fig. 2A and Supplementary Table S1)
Summary
As the global population continues to grow, competition for resources between humans and livestock has been intensifying. Increasing milk protein production and improving feed efficiency are becoming increasingly important to meet the demand for high-quality dairy protein. We found that milk protein yield in dairy cows was associated with the rumen microbiome. Dairy cattle are an important source of high-quality animal protein for human consumption. Along with the increasing global population and competition for resources between humans and livestock, meeting the. Rumen microbes are an important protein source for ruminants, as they are subsequently digested in the small intestine [11]. Understanding the microbe-dependent mechanisms underlying feed efficiency microbial features associated with feed efficiency in dairy cows is of great importance
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