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Ensiling sorghum with unsalable pumpkin improves feed digestibility with minimal influence on the rumen microbial population using the rumen simulation technique

  • Genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics
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Abstract

This study aimed to determine the influence of sorghum ensiled with unsalable pumpkin at 20 or 40% dry matter (DM) basis on rumen fermentation characteristics and rumen microbial communities using the rumen simulation technique (RUSITEC). The experiment used a completely randomised design including silages comprising (1) 100% sorghum; (2) 80% sorghum + 20% DM pumpkin; or (3) 60% sorghum + 40% DM pumpkin. Each RUSITEC run (n = 2) was 15 d long, including 6 d of adaptation and 9 d of sampling. Dry matter digestibility (DMD) was measured on d 8 and 10–13. Gas production was measured daily, whereas methane and volatile fatty acids (VFA) production were measured from d 7–15. Solid-associated microbes (SAM) were collected on d 5, 10 and 15, whereas liquid-associated microbes (LAM) were collected after 15-d incubation. The V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene and the ITS1 region were sequenced to identify archaeal, bacterial and fungal communities. Ensiling 40% DM pumpkin with sorghum increased DMD and decreased the ratio of acetate to propionate (P ≤ 0.01). Both bacterial SAM and LAM communities were dominated by Megasphaera, and had the highest relative abundance (P = 0.03) with 40% DM pumpkin after 5 d incubation in the SAM community, while species of the Aspergillus genus dominated fungal SAM and LAM communities with 20 or 40% DM unsalable pumpkin. Therefore, ensiling up to 40% DM unsalable pumpkin with sorghum produces a high-quality ruminant feed with minimal influence on the rumen microbial population.

Key points

• Including 40% DM unsalable pumpkin decreased acetate:propionate

• Ensiling unsalable pumpkin with sorghum increases digestibility in a RUSITEC

• Rumen microbial communities were slightly influenced by unsalable pumpkin inclusion

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Data availability

The 16S rRNA and ITS1 gene sequences are available through NCBI sequence read archive under BioProject accession number PRJNA560972

Code availability

Not applicable

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Meat & Livestock Australia for their financial support of Daniel Forwood. The authors would also like to thank Kalfresh Pty Ltd. for supplying the pumpkins utilised in this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Faculty of Science, The University of Queensland, Gatton, QLD, Australia

    Daniel L. Forwood & Sarah J. Meale

  2. Department of Agricultural, Forestry and Food Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, TO, Italy

    Eleonora Caro

  3. School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia

    Eleonora Caro & Alex V. Chaves

  4. Lacombe Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lacombe, AB, Canada

    Devin B. Holman

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  1. Daniel L. Forwood
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  5. Alex V. Chaves
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Contributions

AVC and SJM conceived and designed research. AVC, DLF, EC and SJM conducted experiments. DBH conducted bioinformatics. AVC, DBH, DLF and SJM analysed the data. AVC and DBH conducted statistical analyses. DLF, AVC, SJM and DBH wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Alex V. Chaves.

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Experimental work with donor cattle was conducted at The University of Sydney Corstorphine Dairy (Cobbitty, NSW Australia) in accordance with The University of Sydney Animal Ethics Committee (Approved Protocol number 2015/835).

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Forwood, D.L., Caro, E., Holman, D.B. et al. Ensiling sorghum with unsalable pumpkin improves feed digestibility with minimal influence on the rumen microbial population using the rumen simulation technique. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 105, 3289–3300 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-021-11220-2

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