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Gut Microbes 2019Methane is generated in the foregut of all ruminant animals by the microorganisms present. Dietary manipulation is regarded as the most effective and most convenient way... (Review)
Review
Methane is generated in the foregut of all ruminant animals by the microorganisms present. Dietary manipulation is regarded as the most effective and most convenient way to reduce methane emissions (and in turn energy loss in the animal) and increase nitrogen utilization efficiency. This review examines the impact of diet on bovine rumen function and outlines what is known about the rumen microbiome. Our understanding of this area has increased significantly in recent years due to the application of omics technologies to determine microbial composition and functionality patterns in the rumen. This information can be combined with data on nutrition, rumen physiology, nitrogen excretion and/or methane emission to provide comprehensive insights into the relationship between rumen microbial activity, nitrogen utilisation efficiency and methane emission, with an ultimate view to the development of new and improved intervention strategies.
Topics: Animals; Cattle; Diet; Dietary Proteins; Food Industry; Gastrointestinal Microbiome; Metagenomics; Methane; Nitrogen; Rumen
PubMed: 30207838
DOI: 10.1080/19490976.2018.1505176 -
The Veterinary Clinics of North... Nov 2017The ruminal epithelium is a complex tissue that serves as an important protective barrier as well as a metabolically important tissue for whole-animal energy metabolism.... (Review)
Review
The ruminal epithelium is a complex tissue that serves as an important protective barrier as well as a metabolically important tissue for whole-animal energy metabolism. Up to 70% of the energetic needs of mature animals are absorbed as short-chain fatty acids through the stratified squamous epithelium, and it serves as the primary producer of ketones in fed animals. Both physical and metabolic development are incomplete at birth and are triggered by short-chain fatty acids. Regulatory control of the proliferation and differentiation necessary for normal development is a useful model for the scientific investigation of nutrient-gene interactions.
Topics: Adaptation, Physiological; Animal Feed; Animals; Diet; Energy Metabolism; Epithelium; Fatty Acids, Volatile; Rumen
PubMed: 28807474
DOI: 10.1016/j.cvfa.2017.06.001 -
Progress in Industrial Microbiology 1971
Review
Topics: Animals; Bacteria; Bacteriological Techniques; Methods; Models, Biological; Rumen
PubMed: 4930342
DOI: No ID Found -
The Veterinary Clinics of North... Nov 2017Clinical rumen acidosis is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in both large and small ruminants. Feeding and management practices that lead to the consumption... (Review)
Review
Clinical rumen acidosis is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in both large and small ruminants. Feeding and management practices that lead to the consumption of large amounts of readily fermentable carbohydrates precipitate clinical disease. The fermentation of carbohydrates into volatile fatty acids and lactate causes acidosis (local and systemic), rumen ulceration, cardiovascular compromise, and organ dysfunction. Animals affected with acidosis can suffer from numerous sequelae. Treatment of animals with clinical rumen acidosis is focused on addressing plasma volume deficits, correcting acid-base disturbances, and restoring a normal rumen microenvironment.
Topics: Acidosis; Animals; Rumen; Ruminants; Stomach Diseases
PubMed: 28743471
DOI: 10.1016/j.cvfa.2017.06.003 -
Journal of Dairy Science Jun 1981
Review
Topics: Animal Feed; Animals; Bacteria; Carbohydrate Metabolism; Computers; Ecology; Eukaryota; Fermentation; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; Nitrogen; Proteins; Rumen; Substrate Specificity
PubMed: 7024344
DOI: 10.3168/jds.S0022-0302(81)82694-X -
Journal of Dairy Science Aug 2018The rumen is a large bioreactor that enables dairy cattle to derive nutrition from otherwise indigestible plant polymers and compounds. Despite the direct contribution... (Review)
Review
The rumen is a large bioreactor that enables dairy cattle to derive nutrition from otherwise indigestible plant polymers and compounds. Despite the direct contribution of the rumen's microbial community toward the nutrition of the dairy cow, only a general knowledge has been gained of the metabolic processes within the rumen, and less still is known about most of the individual microbial species that colonize the organ. What has been discovered is that the rumen contains a diverse community of microbial species from all of the major domains of life, and that the contents of the rumen can vary greatly among individual animals. Preliminary evidence also indicates that rumen microbial profiles are heritable and sustainable within an individual, and that rumen microbial community structure can revert to its original profile within a short period following substantial perturbation. Much progress has been made in recent years to identify the diversity of microbial species in the rumen; however, the most popular methods used to identify microbial species often lack the predictive power necessary to associate particular microbial profiles with rumen metabolic activity. This represents the most significant barrier to the design of models that can estimate the direct effects of rumen microbial content on downstream dairy production traits. If such challenges can be overcome, it is possible that rumen microbial content could be assessed as a new phenotypic trait in cattle. In the future, we may estimate dairy production using a "genotype × environment × microbial" interaction model that accurately combines all factors affecting milk production.
Topics: Animal Feed; Animals; Cattle; Diet; Female; Gastrointestinal Microbiome; Lactation; Milk; Rumen
PubMed: 29102146
DOI: 10.3168/jds.2017-13328 -
The Veterinary Clinics of North... Jul 1991The rumen is a dynamic, continuous fermentation compartment that provides a suitable environment for a variety of species of anaerobic bacteria, protozoa, and fungi.... (Review)
Review
The rumen is a dynamic, continuous fermentation compartment that provides a suitable environment for a variety of species of anaerobic bacteria, protozoa, and fungi. These microorganisms have a complex series of interactions with the feeds supplied to the host, with some using particulate matter as both sources of nutrients and sites of sequestration to avoid being washed from the rumen by the rapid flow of fluids. Because of the ability to use soluble nutrients and to reproduce rapidly, other microbes associate primarily with the liquid phase of the rumen contents. Due to the metabolic activity of all microbial populations, feeds are converted to microbial matter and fermentation end products, which serve as nutrients for the ruminant. Optimum feed utilization by ruminants is dependent on achieving maximum rumen fermentation and flow of microbial protein to the duodenum. At this time, it is clear that the major nutrients required by the microbial populations include both fibrous and nonfibrous sources of carbohydrates and nitrogen in the form of ammonia, amino acids, and peptides. In spite of five decades of research, the exact quantities and sources of these nutrients that will result in optimum rumen fermentation rates and microbial yields are only partially known.
Topics: Animals; Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; Cattle; Dietary Carbohydrates; Dietary Fats; Dietary Proteins; Digestion; Eukaryota; Fungi; Rumen
PubMed: 1893273
DOI: 10.1016/s0749-0720(15)30801-x -
Journal of the South African Veterinary... Sep 2008Ruminants that for any reason are unable to eat enough to survive can be supported via rumen fistulation. To successfully accomplish this task, an understanding of rumen... (Review)
Review
Ruminants that for any reason are unable to eat enough to survive can be supported via rumen fistulation. To successfully accomplish this task, an understanding of rumen physiology is necessary. Some adaptation and modification of the normal physiological processes will be necessary because the extended time normally required to ingest food will, for obvious practical reasons, be reduced to a few minutes repeated once to three times a day. The physiology of significance to aphagic or dysphagic animals is discussed and relevant examples of clinical cases are used to illustrate practical applications.
Topics: Animal Feed; Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; Animals; Cattle; Digestion; Female; Fistula; Male; Nutritional Requirements; Pregnancy; Rumen; Saliva
PubMed: 19244817
DOI: 10.4102/jsava.v79i3.255 -
Animal : An International Journal of... Jun 2013Vaccination against rumen methanogens offers a practical approach to reduce methane emissions in livestock, particularly ruminants grazing on pasture. Although... (Review)
Review
Vaccination against rumen methanogens offers a practical approach to reduce methane emissions in livestock, particularly ruminants grazing on pasture. Although successful vaccination strategies have been reported for reducing the activity of the rumen-dwelling organism Streptococcus bovis in sheep and S. bovis and Lactobacillus spp. in cattle, earlier approaches using vaccines based on whole methanogen cells to reduce methane production in sheep have produced less promising results. An anti-methanogen vaccine will need to have broad specificity against methanogens commonly found in the rumen and induce antibody in saliva resulting in delivery of sufficiently high levels of antibodies to the rumen to reduce methanogen activity. Our approach has focussed on identifying surface and membrane-associated proteins that are conserved across a range of rumen methanogens. The identification of potential vaccine antigens has been assisted by recent advances in the knowledge of rumen methanogen genomes. Methanogen surface proteins have been shown to be immunogenic in ruminants and vaccination of sheep with these proteins induced specific antibody responses in saliva and rumen contents. Current studies are directed towards identifying key candidate antigens and investigating the level and types of salivary antibodies produced in sheep and cattle vaccinated with methanogen proteins, stability of antibodies in the rumen and their impact on rumen microbial populations. In addition, there is a need to identify adjuvants that stimulate high levels of salivary antibody and are suitable for formulating with protein antigens to produce a low-cost and effective vaccine.
Topics: Animals; Bacteria; Bacterial Vaccines; Cattle; Eukaryota; Euryarchaeota; Methane; Protozoan Vaccines; Rumen; Sheep
PubMed: 23739467
DOI: 10.1017/S1751731113000682 -
The Veterinary Clinics of North... Jul 2008Rumen cannulation can be done on a healthy animal currently in the herd with minimal expense. The surgery is no more difficult than most other routine surgical... (Review)
Review
Rumen cannulation can be done on a healthy animal currently in the herd with minimal expense. The surgery is no more difficult than most other routine surgical procedures performed by bovine practitioners. A cannulated animal provides a long-term, readily available source of rumen content that can be used to transfaunate herd mates that have suffered various digestive upsets.
Topics: Animals; Catheterization; Cattle; Digestive System Surgical Procedures; Rumen
PubMed: 18471573
DOI: 10.1016/j.cvfa.2008.02.007