Abstract
Developing the rumen’s capacity to utilise recalcitrant and low-value feed resources is important for ruminant production systems. Early-life nutrition and management practices have been shown to influence development of the rumen in young animals with long-term consequences on their performance. Therefore, there has been increasing interest to understand ruminal development and function in young ruminants to improve feed efficiency, health, welfare, and performance of both young and adult ruminants. However, due to the small size, rapid morphological changes and low initial microbial populations of the rumen, it is difficult to study ruminal function in young ruminants without major invasive approaches or slaughter studies. In this review, we discuss the usefulness of a range of proxies and markers to monitor ruminal function and nitrogen use efficiency (a major part of feed efficiency) in young ruminants. Breath sulphide and methane emissions showed the greatest potential as simple markers of a developing microbiota in young ruminants. However, there is only limited evidence for robust indicators of feed efficiency at this stage. The use of nitrogen isotopic discrimination based on plasma samples appeared to be the most promising proxy for feed efficiency in young ruminants. More research is needed to explore and refine potential proxies and markers to indicate ruminal function and feed efficiency in young ruminants, particularly for neonatal ruminants.
Highlights
Simple measurements of sulphides and methane in breath could be used to provide a practical and non-invasive tool to monitor the developing microbiota of young ruminants
Plasma nitrogen isotopic discrimination is a promising proxy for feed efficiency in young ruminants and could be applied through a simple blood testing programme
The review indicated a lack of published international literature on the development of markers and proxies for ruminal function and feed efficiency in young ruminants, which would complement the much larger body of research on husbandry of young ruminants
Summary
Data mentioned in this publication can be found from cited literature. LC and RD conceptualized and designed the review, LC, GC, SM, IR, AJ, MK, OA and RJ drafted different sections according to their expertise and revised the article
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