Starch in ruminant diets: a review

Abstract

SummaryBackground: starch is an important energy source for ruminants nutrition. This carbohydrate is often used to improve rumen fermentation, optimizing digestion of structural carbohydrates and increasing protein flow to the small intestine. Microbial and digestive enzymes are involved in starch digestion, generating products that can positively or negatively affect animal performance and health, depending on the starch contents of the diet. Objective: to describe the basic characteristics of starches, the factors affecting its nutritional availability, and its effects in ruminants. Conclusion: a number of factors affect starch digestibility, including granule size, amylose/amylopectin ratio, proportion of farinaceous and vitreous endosperm, presence of starch-lipid and starch-protein complexes, and physical-chemical processing of the feed. Ingestion of large amounts of starch can trigger ruminal acidosis. However, its rational use in the diet has positive effects on methane emissions, and in milk yield and composition.

Metagenomic Analyses of Microbial and Carbohydrate-Active Enzymes in the Rumen of Dairy Goats Fed Different Rumen Degradable Starch

“…Crystal pattern, granule size and shape, amylose and amylopectin content, presence of a protein matrix are the main factors characterizing starch for each plant species (French, 1973). Compared with corn starch, wheat starch has higher amylopectin content, and less bound with insoluble protein, resulting in more accessible to enzymatic hydrolysis in wheat starch (Li et al, 2014a;Luis et al, 2016). In the current study, we conduct higher RDS by replacing corn with wheat.…”

“…For ruminants, starch an important energy source is often used to improve rumen fermentation, optimizing digestion of carbohydrates and increasing protein flow to the small intestine. Compared with corn starch, wheat starch has higher amylopectin content, and less bound with insoluble protein, resulting in more accessible to enzymatic hydrolysis in wheat starch (Luis et al, 2016). Increasing dietary rumen degradable starch (RDS) can increase the potential risk for sub-acute ruminal acidosis in goats by decreasing the ruminal pH (Gozho et al, 2007;Li et al, 2014b).…”

Identification of a Candidate Starch Utilizing Strain of Prevotella albensis from Bovine Rumen

“…While ruminants have evolved to utilize structural polysaccharides as their primary source of energy, the inclusion of starch-rich feedstuffs, such as maize or cereal grains, is a common practice in intensive ruminant livestock production systems [ 7 , 8 ]. Indeed, since starch is a more readily available source of energy compared to plant fiber polysaccharides, it provides a more efficient means of meeting the energy requirements of high-producing ruminants [ 9 ]. However, faster rates of fermentation for starch compared to plant fiber components can result in rapid accumulation of SCFAs, which can breach the buffering capacity limits of the rumen, and cause ruminal acidosis [ 10 , 11 ].…”

Total and resistant starch from foodstuff for animal and human consumption in Costa Rica

“…In Costa Rica, the majority of feeds tested for TS, during the surveillance program, are for ruminants. This represents an intuitive result since unchecked amounts of starch, in feed for such species, can trigger ruminal acidosis ( Gómez et al., 2016 ). However, in monogastric animals, feed formulations based on RS-rich ingredients have already proven to improve parameters such as growth promotion hinting as a possible alternative to in-feed antibiotics ( Regassa and Nyachoti, 2018 ).…”

“…On the other hand, several factors affect starch digestibility, including granule size, amylose/amylopectin ratio, the proportion of farinaceous and vitreous endosperm, presence of starch-lipid and starch-protein complexes, and the physical-chemical processing of the foodstuffs ( Gómez et al., 2016 ).…”