Comparative evaluation of rumen responses, blood and serum indices in murrah buffaloes, Vrindavani and Tharparkar Cattle fed on a similar diet Rathode Narayana1, Verma A. K.1, Kala Anju1, Agarwal Payal1, Rahman H.2, Chaudhary L. C.1,* 1Centre of Advanced Faculty Training in Animal Nutrition, ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar, 243122, Uttar Pradesh, India 2ILRI, South East Asia Office, New Delhi, India *Correspondence: lcchaudhary1@rediffmail.com
Online published on 22 March, 2023. Abstract Rumen microbial ecosystem is a complex, highly diversified microenvironment comprising of bacteria, protozoa, archaea, fungi and phages, which enable ruminants to utilize poor quality fibrous feedstuffs. Comparison between cattle and buffalo for the rumen metabolism is challenging and interesting to understand. With this background, the present study has been carried out by conducting a feeding trial of 120 days to compare rumen fermentation, microbial profile and blood indices in Murrah buffalo (n=6), Vrindavani (n=6) and Tharparkar (n=6) cattle on a similar diet. The daily dry matter intake (kg/d) was higher (P<0.001) in Murrah buffaloes and Vrindavani as compared to Tharparkar. The mean pH was significantly lower (P<0.01) in the Vrindavani cattle as compared to Murrah buffalo and Tharparkar cattle. The rumen ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) concentration was higher (P<0.001) in Murrah buffalo group than both cattle species, whereas the total volatile fatty acid (TVFA) and propionate production was higher (P<0.05) in Vrindavani as compared to remaining two groups The lactic acid concentration was similar among the species at 0 and 2 h post feeding; however, there was a significant increase in rumen lactic acid concentration at 2 h post feeding in all the groups compared to 0 h.. The activity of rumen microbial enzymes like carboxy methyl cellulose (CMCase) and avicelase was higher (P<0.001) in Murrah buffalo as compared to other two groups, however, amylase and protease activities were similar between Murrah buffalo and Vrindavani. The population of protozoa as assessed by microscopic counting and RT-PCR was lower (P<0.05) in Vrindavani. The number of total bacteria, total methanogens, total fungi and P.ruminicola were comparable (P>0.05) among the three groups i.e. Murrah buffalo, Vrindavani and Tharparkar cattle. The values of blood indices (bio-chemicals and enzymes) were similar in all the three groups except Hb, PCV which were higher in Murrah buffalo. It can be inferred that the better ruminal functioning might be responsible for the said higher efficiency in feed utilization in buffaloes than cattle. Top Keywords Blood indices, Murrah buffalo, Real time PCR, Rumen fermentation, Similar diet, Tharparkar, Vrindavani. Top |