Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Aug 20;6(3):89.
doi: 10.3390/microorganisms6030089.

Influence of Season and Diet on Fiber Digestion and Bacterial Community Structure in the Rumen of Muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus)

Emilio M Ungerfeld  1 , Mary Beth Leigh  2   3 , Robert J Forster  4 , Perry S Barboza  5   6
Affiliations

Influence of Season and Diet on Fiber Digestion and Bacterial Community Structure in the Rumen of Muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus)

Emilio M Ungerfeld et al. Microorganisms. .

Abstract

We studied the relationship between fiber digestion and the composition of the bacterial community in the rumen of muskoxen at the start and the end of the annual window of plant growth from spring to fall. Eight ruminally cannulated castrated males were fed brome hay or triticale straw (69.6% vs. 84.6% neutral detergent fiber, respectively) that were similar in fiber content to the sedges consumed by wild muskoxen (64.5 to 71.7% neutral detergent fiber). Muskoxen digested fiber from both forages faster and to a greater extent when straw rather than hay was consumed. Fiber digestion was therefore inducible by diet 4 in each season. We used 16S rRNA sequences from ruminal contents to study how season and diet affected the bacterial community and how the latter related to fiber digestion. We found that Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes accounted for 90% of the sequences at the level of Phylum, which is typical for the mammal gut microbiome. Using partial least square regressions, it was found that between 48% and 72% of the variation in fiber digestion was associated with 36⁻43 genera of bacteria. The main fibrolytic bacteria typical of domestic ruminants were generally not among the most important bacteria associated with fiber digestion in muskoxen. This reveals that muskoxen rely upon on a large suite of bacterial genera that are largely distinct from those used by other ruminants to digest the cell walls of plants that vary widely in both abundance and nutritional quality through the year.

Keywords: bacterial diversity; digestion; muskoxen; rumen.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, and in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Digestion (%) of NDF (a), cellulose (b), and hemicellulose (c), at 120 h in nylon bags with different substrates and animals on different diets.
Figure 1
Figure 1
Digestion (%) of NDF (a), cellulose (b), and hemicellulose (c), at 120 h in nylon bags with different substrates and animals on different diets.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Attwood G., Kelly W., Altermann E., Moon C., Leahy S., Cookson A. Application of rumen microbial genome information to livestock systems in the postgenomic era. Aust. J. Exp. Agric. 2008;48:695–700. doi: 10.1071/EA07408. - DOI
    1. Wallace R.J. Gut microbiology—Broad genetic diversity, yet specific metabolic niches. Animal. 2008;2:661–668. doi: 10.1017/S1751731108001687. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Barboza P.S., Bennett A., Lignot J.-H., Mackie R.I., McWhorter T.J., Secor S.M., Skovgaard N., Sundset M.A., Wang T. Digestive Challenges for Vertebrate Animals: Microbial Diversity, Cardiorespiratory Coupling, and Dietary Specialization. Physiol. Biochem. Zool. 2010;83:764–774. doi: 10.1086/650472. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Clauss M., Hume I.D., Hummel J. Evolutionary adaptations of ruminants and their potential relevance for modern production systems. Animal. 2010;4:979–992. doi: 10.1017/S1751731110000388. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Duncan A.J., Poppi D.P. The Ecology of Browsing and Grazing. Springer; Berlin/Heidelberg, Germany: 2008. Nutritional Ecology of Grazing and Browsing Ruminants; pp. 89–116. Ecological Studies.

LinkOut - more resources