BACKGROUND Rumen microbes play a greater role in host energy acquisition than that of gut-associated microbes in monogastric animals. Although genome-enabled advancements are providing access to the vast diversity of uncultivated microbes, our understanding of variables shaping rumen microbial communities is in its infancy. Viruses have been shown to impact microbial populations through a myria...

The inhabitants of the rumen microbial eco-system, a complex consortium of different microbial groups living in symbiotic relationship with the host, act synergistically for the bioconversion of lignocellulosic feeds into volatile fatty acids which serve as a source of energy for the animals. The constraints, imposed by the host and the feed consumed by the animal, under which these microbes ha...

In dairy cattle, the rumen environment is designed to function optimally within a pH range of 6.2 to 7.2. To maintain healthy rumen function, dairy cows require diets that contain adequate amounts of physically effective neutral detergent fiber (peNDF). Ensuring adequate intake of peNDF can, however, be difficult because most commercial dairy rations, designed to maximize milk production, conta...

The ruminant animal has two unique features – it chews its cud and has four distinct compartments in the stomach. More importantly the ruminant can convert forages that are comprised by large quantities of cellulose, that is poorly digestible by non-ruminants, into high quality protein (muscle) that provides excellent eating experiences and nutrients for humans. Rumen Physiology is the study of...

A mature dairy cow was transitioned from a high forage (100% forage) to a high-grain (79% grain) diet over seven days. Continuous ruminal pH recordings were utilized to diagnose the severity of ruminal acidosis. Additionally, blood and rumen papillae biopsies were collected to describe the structural and functional adaptations of the rumen epithelium. On the final day of the grain challenge, th...

The ability of ruminants to utilize cellulosic biomass is a result of the metabolic activities of symbiotic microbial communities that reside in the rumen. To gain further insight into this complex microbial ecosystem, a selection-based batch culturing approach was used to identify candidate cellulose-utilizing bacterial consortia. Prior to culturing with cellulose, rumen contents sampled from ...

Butyric acid is a major product of feed fermentation in the intestinal tract of various animals, especially the rumen of cattle and sheep. This has been known for 70 years (1). Elsden, Hitchcock, Marshall, and Phillipson (2) noted that the rumen and reticulum of an ox contained an average of 329 gm. of volatile acids (calculated as acetic acid), and that the mixture of volatile fatty acids in t...

The ability of rumen microorganisms to use fibrous plant matter plays an important role in ruminant animals; however, little information about rumen colonization by microbial populations after weaning has been reported. In this study, high-throughput sequencing was used to investigate the establishment of this microbial population in 80 to 110-day-old goats. Illumina sequencing of goat rumen sa...