Nutritional intervention in early life to manipulate rumen microbial colonization and methane output by kid goats postweaning1

Abstract

The growing interest in reducing methane (CH4) emissions from ruminants by dietary means is constrained by the complexity of the microbial community in the rumen of the adult animal. The aim of this work was to study whether intervention in early life of goat kids has an impact on methane emissions and the microbial ecosystem in the rumen and whether the effects persist postweaning. Sixteen doe goats giving birth to 2 kids each were randomly split into 2 experimental groups: 8 does were treated (D+) with bromochloromethane (BCM) after giving birth and over 2 mo, and the other 8 does were not treated (D-). In both groups of does, 1 kid per doe was treated with BCM (k+) for 3 mo, and the other was untreated (k-), resulting in 4 experimental groups: D+k+, D+k-, D-k+, and D-k-. Methane emissions were recorded, and ruminal samples were collected from kids at 2 mo of age (weaning, W) and 1 (W+1) and 4 (W+4) mo later. At W+1 mo, CH4 emissions by k+ kids were 52% and 59% less than untreated kids (in D+ and D- groups, respectively). However, at W+4 mo, only D+k+ kids remained lower (33%) emitters and exhibited greater daily BW gain (146 g/d) compared with the other 3 groups (121.8 g/d). The analysis of the archaeal community structure by Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (DGGE)showed a strong effect of BCM treatment on does and kids that persisted only in D+k+ kids. The study showed that the application of BCM during early life of kids modified the archaeal population that colonized the rumen, which resulted in decreased CH4 emissions around weaning. The effect is influenced by the treatment applied to the doe and persisted 3 mo later in D+k+ kids.

Positive consequences of maternal diet and post-natal rumen inoculation on rumen function and animal performance of Merino lambs

“…Indications of improved ruminal fermentation after post-natal inoculation, together with changes in enteric emissions by chemically perturbing the developing rumen observed by other authors (Abecia et al, 2013), suggest plasticity in the rumen microbiome and that there exits opportunity to establish a desired microbiome by diet, inoculation, or chemical perturbation. Repeated evidence of enhanced animal production arising from such change is still required.…”

Understanding host-microbial interactions in rumen: searching the best opportunity for microbiota manipulation

“…Recent studies that focused on early life gut microbiota and its long-term impacts on human health and growth [7, 8] suggest a potential to manipulate microbiota through early life to obtain beneficial effects during adult life. Indeed, dietary interventions on pre-ruminant rumen microbiota have been successful in achieving fairly persistent and long-term results [9–11]. However, the knowledge is still limited on the impact of early interventions on adult production.…”

Epigenetics and developmental programming of welfare and production traits in farm animals

“…differences between breast-vs formula-fed infants) and from close physical maternal contact and the surrounding environment (Kaplan et al 2011;Kau et al 2011). In human medicine, current interests primarily concern developmental programming of the immune system, whereas in ruminants the current primary driver for research into microbiota-host interactions lies in methanogenesis and greenhouse gas emissions (Morgavi et al 2010), where emerging evidence in sheep and goats indicates that the population of methanogens in the rumen may be acquired from a very young age (Gagen et al 2012;Abecia et al 2013). There is clearly considerable scope to extend these emerging ideas and data in all species to investigate long-term developmental programming in offspring, adaptive responses to changing environments and associated intergenerational inheritance.…”