Effects of Cross‐Inoculation From Elk and Feeding Pine Needles On the Protozoan Fauna of Pregnant Cows: Occurrence of Parentodinium Africanum In Domestic U.S. Cattle (Bos Taurus)

Abstract

Consumption of pine needles tends to cause abortion in domestic cattle but not in elk. The present study was undertaken to determine whether this difference was associated with the rumen microbial population. After emptying the rumen, pregnant cattle were inoculated with either elk or cattle rumen contents. For those cows fed the pine needle diet, there was no difference in abortion rate between those inoculated with rumen contents from either elk or cattle. Protozoal concentrations and number of genera were observed to decrease markedly in all cows fed the diet containing pine needles. The cycloposthiid ciliate Parentodinium africanum was observed in rumen contents from several of the domestic cattle (Bos taurus). Concentrations ranged from 1.4 to 130.6 x 10(4) per ml of rumen contents, which comprised 4.6 to 80.3% of the total ciliate population. Mean dimensions of this species were: length, 33.4 microns; width, 19.7 microns; length/width ratio, 1.70, which were similar to those previously reported for this species from Bos indicus in Brazil. This is the first observation of P. africanum, originally observed and described in stomach contents of the hippopotamus, either in Bos taurus or in any host in the northern hemisphere.

Rumen Ciliate Faunae of Water Buffalo(Bubalus bubalis) and Goat(Capra hircus) in Nepal.

“…Measurements of P. africanum reported from the cattle in Brazil [4] and U. S. A. [5] were similar to those in the present study. Further detailed investigation is needed to clarify whether the Parentodinium ciliates found in this study and in the other ruminants are identical species to P. africanum from hippopotamus.…”

Effects of grass and browse consumption on the winter mass dynamics of elk

“…The quadratic model is also congruent with decades of research on digestive physiology, demonstrating that elk are less adapted to processing grass than obligate grazers, but more adapted than obligate browsers (Mould and Robbins 1982;Wickstrom et al 1984;Baker and Hansen 1985;Galbraith et al 1998). Conversely, elk are less adapted to processing browse than obligate browsers, but more adapted that obligate grazers (Ward 1971;Mould and Robbins 1982;Baker and Hobbs 1987;Bellows et al 1996;Dehority et al 1999). That grass-or browse-dominated diets may both be disfavored is also supported by studies from wild ungulate communities where elk diets and foraging habitats are consistently partitioned from those of sympatric browsers and grazers (Hansen and Reid 1975;Telfer 1994;Kingery et al 1996;Stewart et al 2002;Christianson and Creel 2007).…”

Influence of Diet on the Rumen Protozoal Fauna of Indigenous African Wild Ruminants

“…Although only present in very low concentrations in Ethiopian cattle (Table 5), occurrence of the genus Parentodinium (P. africanum) is the first observation of this genus on the African continent in a ruminant. The genus, placed in the family Cycloposthiidae, was first described by Thurston and Noirot‐Timothée (1973) from the forestomach of the hippopotamus, and has been subsequently observed in domestic cattle living in Brazil and the United States (Dehority 1986; Dehority, Grings, and Short 1999).…”