Dataset Information

Effects of Nutritional Deprivation and Re-Alimentation on the Feed Efficiency, Blood Biochemistry, and Rumen Microflora in Yaks (Bos grunniens).

ABSTRACT: Yak suffers severe starvation and body weight reduction in the cold season and recovers relatively rapid growth in the warm season every year. Herein, we investigated the effects of starvation and refeeding on the growth, feed efficiency, blood biochemistry and rumen microbial community as well as functions of yaks. The results showed that starvation significantly reduced the body weight of yaks. Serum glucose and triglyceride concentrations significantly decreased, and ?-hydroxybutyric acid and non-esterified fatty acid levels were significantly increased during the starvation period. Starvation also dramatically inhibited rumen microbial fermentations. Whereas, refeeding with the same diet significantly increased the feed efficiency, nutrient digestibility together with rumen acetate, propionate and microbial protein productions compared with those before starvation. The 16S rDNA sequencing results showed that starvation mainly decreased the ruminal protein-degrading bacteria Prevotella and propionate-producing bacteria Succiniclasticum populations and dramatically increased the denitrifying bacteria Thauera populations. Refeeding reduced the Euryarchaeota population and increased propionate-producing bacteria Succinivibrionaceae UCG-002 and starch-degrading bacteria Ruminobacter populations when compared with those before starvation. The predicted microbial metabolic pathways, related to amino acid and starch metabolisms, were also significantly altered during the starvation and refeeding. The results indicated that the rumen microorganisms and their metabolism pathways changed with feed supply, and these alterations in part contributed to yak adaption to starvation and re-alimentation. This study is helpful for enhancing the understanding and utilization of this natural character of yaks to explore and improve their growth potential.

SUBMITTER: Zou H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6826638 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Effects of Nutritional Deprivation and Re-Alimentation on the Feed Efficiency, Blood Biochemistry, and Rumen Microflora in Yaks (<i>Bos grunniens</i>).

Zou Huawei H Hu Rui R Wang Zhisheng Z Shah Ali Mujtaba AM Zeng Shaoyu S Peng Quanhui Q Xue Bai B Wang Lizhi L Zhang Xiangfei X Wang Xueying X Shi Junhua J Li Fengpeng F Zeng Lei L

Animals : an open access journal from MDPI 20191015 10

Yak suffers severe starvation and body weight reduction in the cold season and recovers relatively rapid growth in the warm season every year. Herein, we investigated the effects of starvation and refeeding on the growth, feed efficiency, blood biochemistry and rumen microbial community as well as functions of yaks. The results showed that starvation significantly reduced the body weight of yaks. Serum glucose and triglyceride concentrations significantly decreased, and β-hydroxybutyric acid and ...[more]

PMID: 31618914

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Project description:Proliferation of shrubs at the expense of native forage in pastures has been associated with large changes in dry-matter intake and dietary components for grazing ruminants. These changes can also affect the animals' physiology and metabolism. However, little information is available concerning the effect of pastoral-shrub grazing on the rumen bacterial community. To explore rumen bacteria composition in grazing yaks and the response of rumen bacteria to increasing shrub coverage in alpine meadows, 48 yak steers were randomly assigned to four pastures with shrub coverage of 0%, 5.4%, 11.3%, and 20.1% (referred as control, low, middle, and high, respectively), and ruminal fluid was collected from four yaks from each pasture group after 85 days. Rumen fermentation products were measured and microbiota composition determined using Ion S5TM XL sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. Principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) and similarity analysis indicated that the degree of shrub coverage correlated with altered rumen bacterial composition of yaks grazing in alpine shrub meadows. At the phyla level, the relative abundance of Firmicutes in rumen increased with increasing shrub coverage, whereas the proportions of Bacteroidetes, Cyanobacteria and Verrucomicrobia decreased. Yaks grazing in the high shrub-coverage pasture had decreased species of the genus Prevotellaceae UCG-001, Lachnospiraceae XPB1014 group, Lachnospiraceae AC2044 group, Lachnospiraceae FCS020 group and Fretibacterium, but increased species of Christensenellaceae R-7 group, Ruminococcaceae NK4A214 group, Ruminococcus 1, Ruminococcaceae UCG-002, Ruminococcaceae UCG-005 and Lachnospiraceae UCG-008. These variations can enhance the animals' utilization efficiencies of cellulose and hemicellulose from native forage. Meanwhile, yaks grazed in the high shrub-coverage pasture had increased concentrations of ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) and branched-chain volatile fatty acids (isobutyrate and isovalerate) in rumen compared with yaks grazing in the pasture without shrubs. These results indicate that yaks grazing in a high shrub-coverage pasture may have improved dietary energy utilization and enhanced resistance to cold stress during the winter. Our findings provide evidence for the influence of shrub coverage on the rumen bacterial community of yaks grazing in alpine meadows as well as insights into the sustainable production of grazing yaks on lands with increasing shrub coverage on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

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Dataset Information

Effects of Nutritional Deprivation and Re-Alimentation on the Feed Efficiency, Blood Biochemistry, and Rumen Microflora in Yaks (Bos grunniens).

Publications

Effects of Nutritional Deprivation and Re-Alimentation on the Feed Efficiency, Blood Biochemistry, and Rumen Microflora in Yaks (<i>Bos grunniens</i>).

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