Optimization of the fatty acid composition of ruminant milk and meat is desirable. Dietary supplementation of algae was previously shown to inhibit rumen biohydrogenation, resulting in an altered milk fatty acid profile. Bacteria involved in biohydrogenation belong to the Butyrivibrio group. This study was aimed at relating accumulation of biohydrogenation intermediates with shifts in Butyrivib...

The advent of next generation sequencing and bioinformatics tools have greatly advanced our knowledge about the phylogenetic diversity and ecological role of microbes inhabiting the mammalian gut. However, there is a lack of information on the evaluation of these computational tools in the context of the rumen microbiome as these programs have mostly been benchmarked on real or simulated datase...

A better understanding of global ruminal microbiota and metabolites under extensive feeding conditions is a prerequisite for optimizing rumen function and improving ruminant feed efficiency. Furthermore, the gap between the information on the ruminal microbiota and metabolites needs to be bridged. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a wide range of forage to concentrate rati...

A. VENKATARAMAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . I 5 1 Effect of Aliphatic Polyamines on Growth and Macromolecular Syntheses in Bacteria. By IJ. BACHRACH and A. WEINSTEIN . . . . . . . . . . . 159 The Phycomycete Catenaria anguillulae: Growth Requirements. By R. A. NOLAN . . . An Electron Microscope Study of Structure and Germination of Conidia of Cunninghamella . . . . . A Comparison of Tw Techniques...

Pastoral agriculture in New Zealand has a long history of improving the efficiency with which fresh pasture is converted into meat, wool and dairy products. New Zealanders live in a temperate climate where rainfall and pasture growth are the main driving forces in low-input pastoral systems. The process whereby protein in fresh pasture is broken down in the rumen and reassimilated into microbia...

Determining the role of rumen microbes and their enzymes in plant polysaccharide breakdown is fundamental to understanding digestion and maximising productivity in ruminant animals. Butyrivibrio proteoclasticus B316(T) is a gram-positive, butyrate-forming rumen bacterium with a key role in plant polysaccharide degradation. The 4.4 Mb genome consists of 4 replicons; a chromosome, a chromid and t...

Bacteria, fungi and protozoa inhabiting the rumen, the largest chamber of the ruminants' stomach, release large quantities of hydrogen during the fermentation of carbohydrates. The hydrogen is used by coexisting methanogens to produce methane in energy-yielding processes. This work shows, for the first time, a fundamental possibility of using a hydrogen-rich fermentation gas produced by selecte...

Improving the health beneficial fatty acid content of meat and milk is a major challenge requiring an increased understanding of rumen lipid metabolism. In this study, we isolated and characterized rumen bacterial lipases/esterases using functional metagenomics. Metagenomic libraries were constructed from DNA extracted from strained rumen fluid (SRF), solid-attached bacteria (SAB) and liquid-as...

Slime production by microorganisms in the rumen of cattle and sheep has been advanced as a possible factor in feed-lot bloat by Jacobson and Lindahl (1955), and for frothy legume bloat by Hungate et al. (1955). The slime serves to entrap the fermentation gases and the resulting frothy ingesta blocks the ruminant's gas eructation mechanism. Lindahl et al. (1957) have produced experimental bloat ...

I. 15NH4C1 was continuously infused for periods of 120-216 h into the rumens of sheep which were allowed to feed 2 out of every 10 min. These treatments achieved steady metabolic states and allowed the assessment of nitrogen conversions by means of tracer methodology. The sheep were given either a barley diet or one of three hay diets. In two trials, the flow of abomasal material was determined...