The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of using dried stoned olive pomace (DSOP) as a feed supplement for dairy cattle on productive performances and milk quality traits. Control (C) and experimental (E) diets were formulated and offered to lactating Italian Holstein cows placed into two groups (five cows each) that were homogenous for liveweight (630.8 vs 667.2 kg) and for the main physiological and productive traits. The E group received 1.181 kg on dry matter (DM) basis of DSOP as a part of the concentrates pool. The C group was fed an isoenergetic (0.90 milk forage units (FU) /kg DM) and isoprotein (161.4 g/kg DM crude protein (CP)) ration but without the inclusion of DSOP. DM intake was 21 kg/day and the experiment lasted 40 days. There were no significant effects of diet on cattle performance (liveweight and body condition score), milk yield and quality (fat, protein, lactose, urea) or coagulation traits (pH, r, K 20 , A 30 ). The results showed that the inclusion of DSOP (5.61% of the total diet on DM basis) is not related to detrimental effects and could represent a valid supplement for dairy cattle.Additional keyword: by-products, dairy cattle, olive oil.

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Sorghum could be a potential substitute to maize in Mediterranean buffaloes feed in order to improve sustainability of buffalo-based agriculture, due to its reduced water and nitrogen requirements compared with maize, which is currently fed primarily. The aim of this study is to obtain information on rumen degradability of fibre fraction of maize and sorghum silages and to investigate the relationship between degradability and rumen microbial populations. As such four cannulated buffalo milking cows were fed ad libitum two different iso-energetic and iso-proteic diets based on maize silage (MS) and sorghum silage (SS). Based on plate counts, values of cellulolytic bacteria showed to be higher within the rumen of SS fed buffaloes compared to MS fed buffaloes (4.4 × 10 9 vs 1.9 × 10 9 cfu/ml, P <0.05), on the contrary, those of xylanolytic bacteria (3.2 × 10 9 vs 1.3 × 10 9 cfu/ml, P < 0.01) were higher in MS possibly due to the different fibre degradability. Real-time PCR of total bacteria, Fibrobacter succinogenes, Ruminococcus albus, and Ruminococcus flavefaciens revealed no statistical difference in their 16S rDNA concentrations between diets. MS and SS were subsequently utilized for a degradability experiment. For this trial three cannulated Mediterranean dry buffalo cows were used (body weight 580 ± 8.5 kg). The MS was found to have an effective degradability of acid detergent fibre, hemicelluloses, and cellulose which were always lower than SS. Maize neutral detergent fibre degradability and slowly degradable fraction were significantly (P < 0.01) higher, on the contrary the immediately degradable fraction was found to be significantly (P < 0.001) lower compared with sorghum. The better sorghum relative feed value (P < 0.001) was related to the major content of fibre fraction compared to maize. As recommended by the IPCC Guidelines, Tier 2 was chosen to estimate the enteric CH 4 emission factor. The estimate of methane production is significantly lower in animals eating sorghum rather than maize (63.48 and 103.00 kg CH 4 /head/ year respectively, P < 0.001). In conclusion, as no difference was observed in animal weight gain and milk yield, rumen microbiota or degradability, it could be possible to substitute MS with SS in buffalo diet.

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New approaches are needed to improve the sustainability of feed production and utilization by ruminants. Promising approaches include increased use of buffaloes for more sustainable milk production, and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) to reduce crop production input needs. However, studies assessing the effect of crops grown in the presence of AMF on rumen microbial utilization are limited. Based on current knowledge, we hypothesized that maize grain grown on AMF-inoculated soil affected ruminal fermentation and microbiota, and that this effect differed between buffalo and cattle. A dietary cross-over study (four weeks per diet) was conducted using rumen-cannulated cattle (n = 5) and buffalo (n = 6) to assess the effect of maize grain (3.9% (w/v) of diet) grown on soil with or without AMF (15 kg/ha) on ruminal fermentation and microbiota. Production of maize on AMF-treated soil did not affect any of the assessed ruminal fermentation parameters, microbial concentrations, or prokaryotic community composition (using prokaryotic 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis). In contrast, host type had numerous effects. Protozoal counts, lactate, total VFA and isobutyrate, were significantly higher in buffaloes compared to cattle. Conversely, butyrate was significantly lower in buffaloes than in cattle. Host type explained 9.3% of the total variation in prokaryotic community composition, and relative abundance of nine amplicon sequence variants significantly differed between host types. These findings indicate that AMF treatment of maize crops has no detrimental impact on the value of the resulting maize grains as a ruminant feed, and provides additional insight into rumen-based differences between cattle and buffalo.