Dietary Alfalfa and Calcium Salts of Long-Chain Fatty Acids Alter Protein Utilization, Microbial Populations, and Plasma Fatty Acid Profile in Holstein Freemartin Heifers

Abstract

This study presented the effects of alfalfa and calcium salts of long-chain fatty acids (CSFA) on feed intake, apparent digestibility, rumen fermentation, microbial community, plasma biochemical parameters, and fatty acid profile in Holstein freemartin heifers. Eight Holstein freemartin heifers were randomly divided into a 4 × 4 Latin Square experiment with 2 × 2 factorial diets, with or without alfalfa or CSFA. Dietary supplementation of CSFA significantly increased the apparent digestibility of dry matter, crude protein, neutral detergent fiber, organic matter, and significantly reduced N retention (P < 0.05). CSFA increased the concentration of ammonia nitrogen in the ruminal fluid (P < 0.05), but alfalfa increased the concentration of valerate and isovalerate (P < 0.05). CSFA increased the concentration of ammonia nitrogen and the relative population of Streptococcus bovis in the rumen (P < 0.05) and inhibited the relative population of Ruminococcus flavefaciens, methanogens, and protozoa (P < 0.05). Alfalfa instead of Leymus chinensis increased the relative population of Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens and Ruminobacter amylophilus in the rumen (P < 0.05) and reduced the relative population of the Ruminococcus albus and Megasphaera elsdenii (P < 0.05). Supplemental CSFA increased the concentration of cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol in the plasma (P < 0.05). And it also altered the composition of fatty acids in the plasma, which was expressed in reducing saturated fatty acid (ΣSFA) ratio and C14-C17 fatty acids proportion except C16:0 (P < 0.05) and increasing the proportion of polyunsaturated fatty acid (ΣPUFA) and unsaturated fatty acid (ΣUFA) (P < 0.05). The results showed that alfalfa and CSFA had interaction effect on the apparent digestibility of ether extracts, plasma triglyceride concentration, isobutyrate concentration, and Ruminococcus albus relative abundance in the rumen. It was concluded that alfalfa substituting Leymus chinensis did not change the apparent digestibility of nutrients in the final stage of fattening Holstein freemartin heifers, while CSFA increased the cholesterol and the proportion of unsaturated fatty acids in plasma. Alfalfa and CSFA had mutual interaction effect on fat digestion and plasma triglycerides.

Linseed oil and heated linseed grain supplements have different effects on rumen bacterial community structures and fatty acid profiles in cashmere kids1

“…As a consequence, LSO-fed kids had low rumen concentrations of both C18:3n3 and n-3 PUFA, as well as an increased n-6/n-3 ratio, whereas HLS-fed kids had low rumen concentrations of both C18:2n6c and n-6 PUFA. These observations agree with those of He et al (2017) for the relationships between Ruminobacter amylophilus abundance and n-6/n-3 ratio in the rumen of heifers consuming a diet rich in C18:3n3. They are also consistent with the observation by Cremonesi et al (2018) that supplementation with linseed grain increases C18:2n6c biohydrogenation in the goat rumen.…”

High‐density diet improves growth performance and beef yield but affects negatively on serum metabolism and visceral morphology of Holstein steers

“…Steers in the current study were fed dry Chinese wildrye; thus, a relatively high n-6/n-3 was observed. The Δ-9 (18) index indicates the desaturation capacity of converting C18:0 to C18:1 (He et al, 2017); thus, a negative correlation was observed between Δ-9 (18) index and concentration of C18:0 in the present study.…”

“…The measurement of fatty acid composition was conducted on a gas chromatograph (GC-2014 Shimadzu Corporation), which was installed with a HP-88 capillary columns (100 m × 0.25 mm ID × 0.2 μm; Agilent Technologies, Wilmington, DE, USA). The operating program was similar to our previous study (He et al, 2017) with following modifications: the pressure value of nitrogen was kept at 246.6 kPa with split ratio of 30:1. Each sample was determined in duplicate, and average value was taken as the final content.…”

“…Blood biochemical parameters are generally proposed to evaluate the status of health and nutrition, where the concentrations of ALT, AST, total protein, creatinine, urea N and albumin could be biomarkers for metabolic disorder and organ injury (He et al, 2017). Besides, serum AST/ALT is positively associated with liver functional injury (Giannini et al, 2003).…”

Synchrony Degree of Dietary Energy and Nitrogen Release Influences Microbial Community, Fermentation, and Protein Synthesis in a Rumen Simulation System

“…The decreased relative abundance of Succinivibrio in FHI and CI might be due to its lower competitive ability compared with starch-degrading bacteria, such as Ruminobacter [57]. Ruminobacter also has the ability to degrade urea and protein and use amino acids as a nitrogen source in rumen [70,76]. Hence, it is reasonable to infer that Ruminobacter might be responsible for the degradation of branched-chain amino acids into BCVFA in our study.…”