Many mammals are herbivores, and most herbivorous mammals live on a diet that makes cellulose digestion essential. The ruminants, which include some of our most important domestic meatand milk-producing animals cattle, sheep and goats have a specialized digestive tract which is highly adapted and has evolved to digest highly fibrous plant materials which nonruminants are unable to utilize. In r...

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...

A survey of the components of the rumen ciliate population in a series of adult sheep, raised in the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Alexandria, has shown that a mixture of Entodinium, Isotricha, Ophryoscolex, Diplodinium, and Polyplastron species was found in the rumen contents of Egyptian sheep; no Epidinium and a negligible number of Dasytricha ruminantium were also observed. The micro...

Four rumen fistulated swamp buffaloes were randomly assigned according to a 4×4 Latin square design to investigate the effects of Eucalyptus (E. Camaldulensis) leaf meal (ELM) supplementation as a rumen enhancer on feed intake and rumen fermentation characteristics. The dietary treatments were as follows: T1 = 0 g ELM/hd/d; T2 = 40 g ELM/hd/d; T3 = 80 g ELM/hd/d; T4 = 120 g ELM/hd/d, respective...

This study was conducted to investigate effects of disodium fumarate (DF) on fermentation characteristics and microbial populations in the rumen of Hu sheep fed on high-forage diets. Two complementary feeding trials were conducted. In Trial 1, six Hu sheep fitted with ruminal cannulae were randomly allocated to a 2 × 2 cross-over design involving dietary treatments of either 0 or 20 g DF daily....

Ruminant production is under increased public scrutiny in terms of the importance of cattle and other ruminants as major producers of the greenhouse gas methane. Methanogenesis is performed by methanogenic archaea, a specialised group of microbes present in several anaerobic environments including the rumen. In the rumen, methanogens utilise predominantly H2 and CO2 as substrates to produce met...

I . Details are given for the construction and use of an apparatus for the incubation of rumen liquor in semi-permeable sacs inside the bovine rumen. It was found practicable, using one animal, to incubate simultaneously samples of strained diluted rumen liquor in three identical vessels, each of 100--120 ml capacity, for periods of up to 23 h. 2. The optimal conditions for experiments of this ...

The use of Tasco (air-dried Ascophyllum nodosum) as a feed supplement for ruminants has been reported to affect rumen fermentation and reduce Escherichia coli O157:H7 shedding in feces, but the mode of action behind this phenomenon is unclear. In this study, the effects of four Tasco levels (0, 1, 3, and 5%) on rumen microbiota and rumen/fecal E. coli O serogroups in rams were investigated. Rum...

The objective of this experiment, part of a larger study, was to investigate changes in rumen bacterial, archaeal, and fungal diversity in cows fed medium-chain saturated fatty acids. In the main study, 6 lactating dairy cows were dosed intraruminally with 240 g/(cow · d) of stearic (SA, control), lauric (LA), or myristic (MA) acid in a replicated 3 × 3 Latin square design trial. Experimental p...