Changes in Rumen Bacterial Community Induced by the Dietary Physically Effective Neutral Detergent Fiber Levels in Goat Diets

Abstract

Physically effective neutral detergent fiber (peNDF) is a concept that accounts for the particle length of NDF in a feed, sustaining the normal chewing behavior and rumen fermentation of ruminants. This study aimed to elucidate the effects of dietary peNDF on growth performance and bacterial communities in the rumen of goats through a high-throughput sequencing technique. A total of 30 male Lezhi black goats were randomly assigned to five groups, corresponding to five diets with identical compositions and nutrient levels but with varying forage lengths (the peNDF1.18 contents of the diets were 33.0, 29.9, 28.1, 26.5, and 24.8%, respectively). The whole trial lasted for 44 days. As results show, feed intake and average daily gain were highest when peNDF1.18 content was 26.5%, in which the papilla length of the dorsal sac in rumen was the highest. Chao1 and ACE indexes were similar among the treatments, while Shannon and Simpson indexes of the peNDF1.18 = 28.1% group were the highest (p < 0.05). As the level of dietary peNDF1.18 decreased, the dominant phylum transitioned from Bacteroidetes to Firmicutes. The top three dominant genera of rumen bacteria were Prevotella 1, Ruminococcaceae NK4A214 group, and Christensenellaceae R-7 group. They all showed a quadratic correlation with dietary peNDF1.18 level (p < 0.05). The relative abundance of Ruminococcaceae UCG-011 was positively correlated, while that of Prevotella 1 was negatively correlated, with amino acid metabolism and energy metabolism (p < 0.01). In conclusion, dietary peNDF level influenced goat growth performance, rumen development, and rumen bacterial community structures, and a peNDF1.18 level between 26.5 and 28.1% was considered optimal for goat diet.

Comparison of rumen bacterial communities between yaks (Bos grunniens) and Qaidam cattle (Bos taurus) fed a low protein diet with different energy levels

“…Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes were the dominant bacteria phyla, as was reported in cattle ( Xin et al, 2019 ), dairy cows ( Wang et al, 2019b ), goats ( Xue et al, 2022 ), and sheep ( Castro-Carrera et al, 2014 ). These findings suggest that these two phyla play important roles in feed digestion and metabolism in the rumen.…”

Effect of dietary peNDF levels on digestibility and rumen fermentation, and microbial community in growing goats

“…A recent meta-analysis demonstrated a strong positive correlation between daily CH 4 production and DMI in finishing beef cattle (Smith et al, 2021). Hence, we found that the variation trend of daily CH 4 production was consistent with the DMI when goats were fed diets with different levels of peNDF (Xue et al, 2022), while the daily CH 4 production per kg DMI was not affected by the dietary peNDF content.…”

“…Excessively small or fine particle size would result in a decrease in rumen pH, negatively affecting fiber digestion, feed intake, and feed efficiency (Tafaj et al, 2005 ). In our recently published study, the feed intake of goats increased first and then decreased with the decrease of dietary peNDF >1.18 content from 33.0 to 24.8% (678 vs. 704 vs. 737 vs. 831 vs. 702 g/day), and reached the maximum at the content of peNDF >1.18 was 26.5% (Xue et al, 2022 ). The same trend appeared in the apparent digestibility of nutrients in this study, with the highest and the lowest digestibility of DM, OM, CP, NDF, and ADF observed in the 28.14% and 24.75% peNDF >1.18 treatment.…”

“…This study was a part of a larger project which aimed to explore the effect of dietary peNDF level on the development of the digestive tract in growing goats. Animal feeding and management were described previously by Xue et al ( 2022 ). In brief, a total of 30 male Lezhi black goats, aged 4.0 ± 0.1 months and weighed 21.42 ± 0.24 kg, were randomly blocked into five treatments, with six replicates per treatment and one goat per replicate.…”

Tannic acid reduced apparent protein digestibility and induced oxidative stress and inflammatory response without altering growth performance and ruminal microbiota diversity of Xiangdong black goats

“…Therefore, the enrichment of Prevotella_1 in TAL might attenuate the adverse impacts of TA on the protein fermentation in rumen, and this inference is consistent with the unaffected NH 3 -N concentration in TAL compared to CON. Moreover, the negative correlation between the ruminal Prevotella_1 abundance and amino acid metabolism and energy metabolism in goats was demonstrated by a recent study (61). This finding implies that a potential relationship might exist between the enrichment of Prevotella_1 and the reduction of GLB, IgG, GH, and IGF-1 in TAL goats, which requires further explorations to be verified.…”