Performance and microbiota of the digestive tract of Nellore calves supplemented with fungi isolated from bovine rumen

Vet World Vol.14 October-2021 Article-15

Research Article

Veterinary World, 14(10): 2686-2693

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2021.2686-2693

Thiago Alves Xavier dos Santos¹, Luís Miguel Gonçalves Fernandes¹, Pedro Paulo Xavier Carvalho¹, Valdo Soares Martins Júnior¹, Suze Adriane Fonseca¹, Amalia Saturnino Chaves², and Eduardo Robson Duarte¹

1. Institute of Agricultural Science, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Campus Montes Claros - MG, 39404-547, Brazil.
2. Department of Veterinary Medicine, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora - MG, 36036-900, Brazil.

Background and Aim: In tropical semiarid regions, supplementation with fungi could contribute to rumen modulation, promoting greater production of fibrolytic enzymes and degradation of forage. The objective of this study was to analyze the effect of supplementation with fungi, isolated from the bovine rumen, on the performance and microbiota of the digestive tract of Nellore calves.

Materials and Methods: The experiment was conducted in randomized blocks evaluating eight Nellore calves that were daily supplemented with isolates of Aspergillus terreus and Trichoderma longibrachiatum, along with eight calves that were not supplemented. After 55 days, the animals were weighed, and samples of rumen fluid and feces were collected for analysis. The characteristics that showed normal distribution were subjected to analysis of variance and compared using Tukey's test. Whereas, the variables that did not show normal distribution were subjected to the Kruskal–Wallis test, and the frequencies of the bacterial and fungal genera were compared using the Chi-square test.

Results: Supplementation with fungi promoted the reduction in ruminal pH (p<0.05). However, the final live weight; average daily weight gain; total weight gain; rumen protozoa; and the count of Enterobacteriaceae, mycelial fungi, and yeasts of ruminal fluid and feces were not influenced by supplementation (p>0.05). Moreover, the protozoa Eodinium spp. was identified only in supplemented calves (p<0.05).

Conclusion: Supplementation with the fungi presented the potential for use as possible additives because it did not alter the physiological parameters of the facultative anaerobic microbiota composition in the rumen and feces. In addition, it favored the presence of the ciliate genus Eodinium. However, further studies should be performed to better define suitable dosages for supplementation. Keywords: Enterobacteriaceae, ruminal microbiota, rumen protozoa, semiarid region, weaning.

Keywords: Enterobacteriaceae, ruminal microbiota, rumen protozoa, semiarid region, weaning.

How to cite this article: dos Santos TAX, Fernandes LMG, Carvalho PPX, Júnior VSM, Fonseca SA, Chaves AS, Duarte ER (2021) Performance and microbiota of the digestive tract of Nellore calves supplemented with fungi isolated from bovine rumen, Veterinary World, 14(10): 2686-2693.

Received: 04-06-2021 Accepted: 07-09-2021 Published online: 21-10-2021

Corresponding author: Thiago Alves Xavier dos Santos E-mail: thiagoax.17@gmail.com

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2021.2686-2693

Copyright: dos Santos TAX, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.