Effect of lauric acid and coconut oil on ruminal fermentation, digestion, ammonia losses from manure, and milk fatty acid composition in lactating cows

Abstract

This experiment (replicated 3 x 3 Latin square design) was conducted to investigate the effects of lauric acid (LA) or coconut oil (CO) on ruminal fermentation, nutrient digestibility, ammonia losses from manure, and milk fatty acid (FA) composition in lactating cows. Treatments consisted of intraruminal doses of 240 g of stearic acid/d (SA; control), 240 g of LA/d, or 530 g of CO/d administered once daily, before feeding. Between periods, cows were inoculated with ruminal contents from donor cows and allowed a 7-d recovery period. Treatment did not affect dry matter intake, milk yield, or milk composition. Ruminal pH was slightly increased by CO compared with the other treatments, whereas LA and CO decreased ruminal ammonia concentration compared with SA. Both LA and CO decreased protozoal counts by 80% or more compared with SA. Methane production rate in the rumen was reduced by CO compared with LA and SA, with no differences between LA and SA. Treatments had no effect on total tract apparent dry matter, organic matter, N, and neutral detergent fiber digestibility coefficients or on cumulative (15 d) in vitro ammonia losses from manure. Compared with SA, LA and CO increased milk fat 12:0, cis-9 12:1, and trans-9 12:1 content and decreased 6:0, 8:0, 10:0, cis-9 10:1, 16:0, 18:0, cis 18:1, total 18:2, 18:3 n-3 and total polyunsaturated FA concentrations. Administration of LA and 14:0 (as CO) in the rumen were apparently transferred into milk fat with a mean efficiency of 18 and 15%, respectively. In conclusion, current data confirmed that LA and CO exhibit strong antiprotozoal activity when dosed intraruminally, an effect that is accompanied by decreases in ammonia concentration and, for CO, lowered methane production. Administration of LA and CO in the rumen also altered milk FA composition.

Inhibitory effects of saturated fatty acids on methane production by methanogenic <i>Archaea</i>

“…Dietary fats rich in saturated mediumchain length fatty acids (MCFA) have been shown to suppress CH 4 formation in vivo (Machmüller and Kreuzer, 1999). At 39°C, lauric (C 12 ) and myristic acid (C 14 ), two MCFA, are anti-methanogenic both in ruminal fluid (Dohme et al, 2001) and in sludge (Koster and Cramer, 1987), while saturated fattyacids (SFA) of longer-chain length such as palmitic acid (C 16 ) and stearic acid (C 18 ) did not exert this effect in vitro (Dohme et al, 2001;Soliva et al, 2004;Zhang et al, 2008) and in vivo (Hristov et al, 2009). However, findings are not always consistent, e.g.…”

“…However, findings are not always consistent, e.g. C 12 and C 14 do not necessarily inhibit C 14 emissions in vivo (Hristov et al, 2009(Hristov et al, , 2011. Effective inhibition of ruminal methanogenesis by SFA requires knowledge about factors influencing the efficiency of CH 4 mitigation and the underlying modes of action.…”

Supplementation with corn oil and palm kernel oil to grazing cows: ruminal fermentation, milk yield, and fatty acid profile

“…However, there was not a significant change in the atherogenicity and thrombogenicity indexes (Table 8) compared with corn oil. Several authors report that dairy cow diets that contain coconut oil, with a similar FA profile to that of palm kernel oil, increase the proportion of 12:0, 14:0, and 16:0 in milk, suggesting that the transfer of these FA from the diet to the product is high and their increase is positively related to their inclusion levels (Hermansen, 1995;Hristov et al, 2009). In our study, the low levels of palm kernel oil (180 g cow d −1 ) explained the small and not significant changes in health indexes.…”

“…Oils rich in saturated medium chain FA (coconut and palm kernel oil) seem to exert a more powerful antimethanogenic effect than oils rich in long chain unsaturated FA (Machmüller et al, 2003;Beauchemin et al, 2008;Martin et al, 2010). However, supplementing oils rich in medium chain saturated FA (lauric 12:0, myristic 14:0, and palmitic 16:0) to dairy cows increases their concentration in milk (Storry et al, 1971;Hermansen, 1995;Hristov et al, 2009). Intake of fats rich in these acids increases blood cholesterol (Grundy, 1994;Mensink et al, 2003), risk of heart stroke (Kromhout et al, 1995), and atherosclerotic disorders (Nicolosi et al, 1997).…”

Pengaruh Proteksi Cpo Dengan Formaldehid Terhadap Kecernaan Dan Performa Domba Ekor Tipis

“…Pemberian ransum yang kaya akan kandungan asam lemak tidak jenuh pada ternak ruminansia sangatlah terbatas, yaitu maksimal 5% dari bahan kering (Doreau dan Chilliard, 1996), karena akan mengganggu fermentasi rumen dan mengurangi pemanfaatan serat (Hristov et al, 2009;Vafa et al, 2009). Drackley (2007) menyatakan bahwa asam lemak tidak jenuh beracun bagi banyak spesies bakteri rumen, terutama yang terlibat dalam pencernaan serat, karena lemak dapat membungkus partikel pakan sehingga menutup akses permukaan membran sel mikrobia bersentuhan dengan pakan yang dapat mengganggu produksi enzim untuk mendegradasi pakan (Johnson, 2007) dan berefek pada penurunan kecernaan pakan.…”