Aspects of Acidosis in Ruminants with a Focus on Nutrition: A Review

Abstract

An increased risk of acidosis in animals is associated with a high dry matter intake (DMI), which in turn results in the consumption of more fermentable organic matter (OM) in the rumen leading to a high production of volatile fatty acids (VFA). This is observed in lactating dairy cows and animals in a feedlot. Acute acidosis occurs when there is a severe drop in the pH of the rumen. A prolonged period when pH of in rumen remains low, it leads to sub-acute ruminal acidosis (SARA), which is a temporary imbalance between acid production and absorption. An associated change of an acute increase in the ruminal osmolarity and the accumulation of glucose and lactate in its stereoisomeric forms (D-lactate and L-lactate), is observed in the rumen fluid. However, in the sub-acute form, the accumulation of lactic acid occurs in the rumen. To a great extent, these changes in the rumen are due to high concentrations of VFA. The best way to avoid problems with ruminal acidosis is an adequate supply of neutral detergent fiber (NDF) in the diet, preferentially with large particle size and length to stimulate rumination and consequently greater buffering efficiency, thus maintaining the balance between pH and microorganisms in the rumen.

GC–MS analysis of the ruminal metabolome response to thiamine supplementation during high grain feeding in dairy cows

“…Subacute ruminal acidosis (SARA) is an important nutritional metabolic disease in high yielding dairy cows because of the increased consumption of concentrates and highly-fermentable forages (Valente et al 2017 ). The effects of SARA include decreased dry matter intake and lower milk yield (Enemark 2008 ), ruminal pH decrease, accumulation of biogenic amines and volatile fatty acids (VFAs) (Sato 2015 ), rumen epithelial damage (McCann et al 2016 ) and laminitis (Plaizier et al 2008 ).…”

Metagenome sequencing to analyze the impacts of thiamine supplementation on ruminal fungi in dairy cows fed high-concentrate diets

“…The overfeeding of high-concentrate diet decreases ruminal pH, changes ruminal microbiota structure (McCann et al 2016 ), influences ruminal fermentation characteristics and consequently leads to subacute ruminal acidosis (SARA) (Enemark 2008 ). SARA has been reported as one of the most serious nutritional diseases in high yielding dairy cows which costs a considerable economic loss all over the world each year (Valente et al 2017 ) and thus many efforts have been paid to prevent its occurrence. Interestingly, our previous study revealed that thiamine supplementation could attenuate high-concentrate diets induced SARA by decreasing ruminal lactate production and increasing ruminal pH value in rumen fluid (Pan et al 2016 ).…”

Effect of Whole Cottonseed or Protected Fat Dietary Additives on Carcass Characteristics and Meat Quality of Beef Cattle: A review

“…Oil seeds are known to have a high percentage (75% on average) of unsaturated fats (examples: oleic, linoleic, and linolenic acids) that are liquids at ambient temperature. They also have the added advantage of exerting an inhibitory effect on the growth of gram-positive bacteria (Malik et al, 2015;Valente et al, 2016Valente et al, , 2017. Excessive amounts of dietary lipids are known to have a negative…”