Here, we report the genome of one gammaproteobacterial member of the gut microbiota, for which we propose the name "Candidatus Schmidhempelia bombi," that was inadvertently sequenced alongside the genome of its host, the bumble bee, Bombus impatiens. This symbiont is a member of the recently described bacterial order Orbales, which has been collected from the guts of diverse insect species; how...

Piromyces sp. strain E2, an anaerobic fungus isolated from an Indian elephant (hindgut fermenter) was tested for its ability to ferment a range of substrates. The fungus was able to use bagasse, cellobiose, cellulose, fructose, glucose, lactose, mannose, starch, wheat bran, wheat straw, xylan and xylose. Formate and acetate were the main fermentation products after growth on these substrates. T...

Microphysiological techniques and computer-based methods of data acquisition and analysis were used to investigate the dynamics of neurochemical action on spontaneous contractions of continuously perfused oviducts and hindguts isolated from female mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti). Proctolin, leucomyosuppressin (LMS), serotonin and octopamine, which are known to modulate insect muscle contractions, an...

Intra-caecal fermentation parameters in caecally-®stulated ponies offered barley based diets in which the barley had been physically processed by either rolling (RB), micronising (MB) or extruding (EB). Three ponies were offered 4 kg dry matter (DM) per day of either 100% hay cubes (HC), or one of three diets consisting of a 50:50 barley:HC mix. Due to small refusals of HC, the actual DM intake...

The effect of liquid whey feeding on fecal bacteria and their metabolites was assessed in five pregnant sows and 66 growing pigs. Sows were fed a control diet for 4 weeks (control period) followed by the same diet but with whey feeding (5 L/day/pig) for 4 weeks (whey period). One group of growing pigs was given 267 L of whey per pig (whey group), while the other group was not (control group). I...

Commonly used feed processing technologies are not sufficient to affect recalcitrant nonstarch polysaccharides (NSP) such as arabinoxylans present in maize distillers dried grain with solubles (DDGS). Instead, hydrothermal treatments combined with acid catalysts might be more effective to modify these NSP. The objective of this experiment was to investigate the effects of hydrothermal maleic ac...

A 2(3) factorial arrangement of treatments was used to study main effects and interactions between particle size of prairie hay (chopped vs ground), two levels of feed intake (60 and 90% of ad libitum) and ruminal degradability of protein sources [dry corn gluten feed (DCGF) vs dry distillers grains (DDG)] on ruminal and total tract digestion in eight ruminal- and duodenal-cannulated steers. St...