Gastro-Intestinal Microbiota in Equines and Its Role in Health and Disease: The Black Box Opens.

Horses are large non-ruminant herbivores and rely on microbial fermentation for energy, with more than half of their maintenance energy requirement coming from microbial fermentation occurring in their enlarged caecum and colon. To achieve that, the gastro-intestinal tract (GIT) of horses harbors a broad range of various microorganisms, differing in each GIT segment, which are essential for efficient utilization of feed, especially to use nutrients that are not or little degraded by endogenous enzymes. In addition, like in other animal species, the GIT microbiota is in permanent interplay with the host's cells and is involved in a lot of functions among which inflammation, immune homeostasis, and energy metabolism.

Production performance and nitrogen metabolism in dairy cows fed supplemental blends of rumen undegradable protein and rumen-protected amino acids in low- compared with high-protein diets containing corn distillers grains.

Feeding corn dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) in low crude protein (CP) diets could limit N waste in lactating cows. However, it also could possibly reduce metabolizable AA supply, especially Lys, and compromise milk production. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of feeding supplemental blends of rumen undegradable protein (RUP) and rumen-protected (RP) AA in a low compared with high CP diet containing corn DDGS on milk production and selected measures of N utilization.

Evaluation of an active live yeast (Levucell , CNCM l-1077) on receiving and backgrounding period growth performance and efficiency of dietary net energy utilization in low health risk beef steers.

The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the influence of an active live yeast direct-fed microbial (DFM) product on receiving and backgrounding period growth performance and efficiency of dietary net energy (NE) utilization in low health risk beef steers. Maine-Anjou × Angus steers ( = 199; body weight [BW] = 252 ± 32.1 kg) were received from two sources at the Ruminant Nutrition Center in Brookings, SD, in November 2019 and used in a 77-d feedlot receiving and backgrounding experiment.

Impacts of dietary fat level and saturation when feeding distillers grains to high producing dairy cows.

This experiment was conducted to determine whether increasing the net energy (NEL ) of a total mixed ration (TMR) with mainly unsaturated fat from corn distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) vs. rumen inert (RI)-saturated fat has similar impacts on animal performance. The experiment was an incomplete Youden square with three treatments and four 28-days periods, completed on a large commercial dairy using three early lactation pens each with approximately 380 multiparity cows.

Ration formulations containing reduced-fat dried distillers grains with solubles and their effect on lactation performance, rumen fermentation, and intestinal flow of microbial nitrogen in Holstein cows.

Sixteen multiparous lactating Holstein cows were used in 2 experiments to evaluate the effects of reduced-fat dried distillers grains with solubles (RFDG) on milk production, rumen fermentation, intestinal microbial N flow, and total-tract nutrient digestibility. In experiment 1, RFDG was fed at 0, 10, 20, or 30% of diet dry matter (DM) to 12 noncannulated Holstein cows (mean ± standard deviation: 89 ± 11 d in milk and 674 ± 68.2 kg of body weight) to determine effects on milk production.