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....

The requirements of thiamine in adult ruminants are mainly met by ruminal bacterial synthesis, and thiamine deficiencies will occur when dairy cows overfed with high grain diet. However, there is limited knowledge with regard to the ruminal thiamine synthesis bacteria, and whether thiamine deficiency is related to the altered bacterial community by high grain diet is still unclear. To explore t...

The degradation of forage cell walls by rumen bacteria was investigated with critical-point drying/scanning electron microscopy and ruthenium red staining/transmission electron microscopy. Differences were observed in the manner of attachment of different morphological types of rumen bacteria to plant cell walls during degradation. Cocci, constituting about 22% of the attached bacteria, appeare...

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of recycled poultry bedding (RPB) treated with different levels of pomegranate peel extract (PPE) as a tannin source on cellulolytic bacterial population and rumen fermentation parameters of fattening lambs. For this purpose, twenty-eight Arabian lambs (19.70 ± 2.45 kg body weight, 90 ± 12 days of age) were randomly assigned to four dietary tr...

The growing public concerns over chemical residues in animal-derived foods and threats of antibiotic-resistant bacteria have renewed interest in exploring safer alternatives to chemical feed additives in ruminant livestock. Various bioactive phytochemicals including saponins appear to be potential 'natural' alternatives to 'chemical' additives in modulating rumen fermentation favourably and ani...

Members of our group recently identified a new tetracycline resistance gene, tet(W), in three genera of rumen obligate anaerobes. Here, we show that tet(W) is also present in bacteria isolated from human feces. The tet(W) genes found in human Fusobacterium prausnitzii and Bifidobacterium longum isolates were more than 99.9% identical to those from a rumen isolate of Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens.

The objective of the present study was to investigate the effects of virginiamycin (VM ) supplementation on ruminal fermentation and microbial populations in steers. Four ruminally cannulated Chinese Luxi steers (BW 559.4 ± 30.1 kg) were used in a crossover design experiment with an experimental period of 28 days. The forage to concentrate ratio of the basal diet was 35:65 on dry matter basis. ...

A sulfate-reducing bacterium has been isolated in pure culture from sheep rumen contents. Its properties agree in all respects tested with those ascribed to Desulfovibrio desulfuricans. The populations observed (about 10(8)/ml) are sufficient to account for published rates of ruminal sulfide production.