Rumen-protected methionine during the peripartal period in dairy cows and its effects on abundance of major species of ruminal bacteria

Abstract

BackgroundExtensive degradation of amino acids in the rumen via microbial deamination decreases the post-ruminal availability of dietary indispensable amino acids. Together with the normal decrease in voluntary dry matter intake (DMI) around parturition in dairy cows, microbial metabolism contributes to a markedly negative balance of indispensable amino acids, including methionine which may be the first-limiting for milk production. The main objective of the current study was to profile changes in major bacterial species with key functions in cellulose and hemicellulose digestion, xylan breakdown, proteolytic action, propionic acid production, lactate utilization and ruminal biohydrogenation in cows supplemented with rumen-protected Methionine (SM; Smartamine M, Adisseo NA, Alpharetta, GA, USA) from −23 through 30 d relative to parturition. Because ~90% of the methionine in SM bypasses the rumen, ~10% of the methionine is released into the rumen and can be utilized by microbes.ResultsAs expected, there was an increase in overall DMI after parturition (Day, P < 0.05) during which cows consumed on average 19.6 kg/d versus 13.9 kg/d in the prepartum period. The postpartum diet contained greater concentrations of lipid and highly-fermentable carbohydrate from corn grain, which likely explains the increases in the relative abundance of Anaerovibrio lipolytica, Megasphaera elsdenii, Prevotella bryantii, Selenomonas ruminantium, Streptococcus bovis, and Succinimonas amylolytica. Despite similar DMI prepartum, cows fed SM had greater (Treatment × Day, P < 0.05) abundance prepartum of Fibrobacter succinogenes, Succinimonas amylolytica, and Succinivibrio dextrinosolvens. However, the greater DMI in cows fed SM after parturition (19.6 kg/d versus 13.9 kg/d) was associated with lower abundance of Fibrobacter succinogenes (2.13 × 10−3 versus 2.25 × 10−4) and Selenomonas ruminantium (2.98 × 10−1 versus 4.10 × 10−1). A lower abundance (Day, P < 0.05) was detected on d 20 compared with d −10 for Fibrobacter succinogenes and Succinivibrio dextrinosolvens. The relative abundance of Butyrivibrio proteoclasticus and Eubacterium ruminantium was stable across treatment and time.ConclusionsIn diets with proper balance of rumen-degradable protein and fermentable carbohydrate, the small fraction of Methionine released from the rumen-protected supplement did not seem to compromise growth of major bacterial species in the rumen. In fact, it had a positive effect on 3 major species prepartum when DMI was similar between groups. Because the actual requirements of Methionine (and Lysine, for example) by the cow during the transition period are unknown, it appears warranted to study the rumen microbiome as it relates to supply of rumen-protected amino acids.

Advances in fatty acids nutrition in dairy cows: from gut to cells and effects on performance

“…A characterization of the lipases present in bacteria using a combination of a genomic approach and expression of recombinant proteins identified three lipases in Anaerovibrio lipolyticus with high activity toward MCFA, particularly C8:0, C10:0, and C12:0 [14]. Interestingly, the relative abundance of those bacteria increases early post-partum when the diet is enriched with large amount of fat, such as cottonseed and rumen inert fat [15]. In addition, galactosidases and phospholipases from the plants participate to the release of FA and the use of FA to produce energy by rumen microbes is minimal, manly by protozoa [9].…”

Effects of peripartal yeast culture supplementation on lactation performance, blood biomarkers, rumen fermentation, and rumen bacteria species in dairy cows

“…, n); DT im is the fixed effect of the ith treatment by the mth time of the experiment interaction; DPT ijm is the fixed effect of the ith treatment by the jth parity by the mth time of the experiment interaction; and e ijklm is the residual error. The sample size for blood biomarkers and rumen fluid data (n = 8/treatment) taken in this study was based on prior studies on transition dairy cows evaluating ruminal microbial populations via PCR (Abdelmegeid et al, 2018;Elolimy et al, 2018). However, the authors acknowledge that reducing the sample size from 20 animals per treatment to 8 on blood biomarkers and rumen fluid data likely hampered the statistical power in this study.…”

“…Each sample was run in triplicate, and the qPCR reactions were performed in a QuantStudio 6 Flex Real-Time PCR System (Applied Biosystems) using the same conditions described by Grazziotin et al (2020). A geometrical mean of 2 universal bacteria primers was used to calculate the relative abundance of bacterial species (Abdelmegeid et al, 2018).…”

Ruminal microbiota–host interaction and its effect on nutrient metabolism

“…The balance between carbohydrate and nitrogen metabolism in the host is crucial for efficient utilization of dietary nutrients. Nitrogen sources in the intestine exert constraints on the microbial competition for carbohydrates, affect microbiota assembly, and shape the host–microbiome interactions ( Holmes et al., 2017 ; Abdelmegeid et al., 2018 ). For example, monosaccharide content can be increased due to the role of microbial enzyme activities ( Ibrahim and Anishetty, 2012 ).…”