The saliva of sheep was shown to contain significant concentrations of uric acid (16(SD 4.5) mumol/l) and allantoin (120(SD 16.4) mumol/l), sufficient to recycle purine derivatives equivalent to about 0.10 of the normal urinary excretion. When allantoin was incubated in vitro in rumen fluid, it was degraded at a rate sufficient to ensure complete destruction of recycled allantoin. In a series o...

Understanding rumen–reticulum fill dynamics gives us insight into how environmental conditions influence animal behaviors that affect when animals access forage. We examined whether there were daytime declines in rumen–reticulum fill in response to high ambient temperatures in free-ranging white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus (Zimmermann, 1780)) on a diurnal scale. We hypothesized that to ...

Consumption of pine needles tends to cause abortion in domestic cattle but not in elk. The present study was undertaken to determine whether this difference was associated with the rumen microbial population. After emptying the rumen, pregnant cattle were inoculated with either elk or cattle rumen contents. For those cows fed the pine needle diet, there was no difference in abortion rate betwee...

Three cannulated Tswana steers were used to investigate the rumen degradability of mopane worm (Imbrasia belina) by measuring the amount of dry matter (DM) and crude protein (CP) disappearing at incubation periods up to 72 h. The effective degradability (ED) of DM and CP in the rumen was calculated at outflow rates of 0.03 / h (ED0.03) and 0.05 / h(ED0.05). Rumen degradable CP (RDP) was estimat...

Nine multiparous lactating cows averaging 171 days in milk were divided according to days in milk and milk production into three 3×3 Latin squares with three 3-week periods to investigate the effect of rumen degradable protein on milk urea nitrogen. Diets were formulated to provide 3 concentrations of dietary rumen degradable protein (9.8, 10.8, and 11.8% of dry matter), while rumen undegradabl...

A survey of the components of the rumen ciliate population in a series of adult sheep, raised in the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Alexandria, has shown that a mixture of Entodinium, Isotricha, Ophryoscolex, Diplodinium, and Polyplastron species was found in the rumen contents of Egyptian sheep; no Epidinium and a negligible number of Dasytricha ruminantium were also observed. The micro...

This paper describes the use of a quantitative competitive polymerase chain reaction (QC-PCR) assay; using PCR primers to the rRNA locus of rumen fungi and a standard-control DNA including design and validation. In order to test the efficiency of this method for quantifying anaerobic rumen fungi, it has been attempted to evaluate this method in in vitro conditions by comparing with an assay bas...

Four rumen-cannulated steers were given barley and maize diets supplemented with graded levels of an ammonium acetate solution. Animals were fed hourly from automatic feeders and water consumption was controlled to achieve steady-state conditions in the rumen. Dacron bags containing rolled barley or ground barley were incubated in the rumen of barley-fed steers, while ground maize and autoclave...

Three Holstein steer calves (179 kg) were fitted with reentrant cannulas at the proximal duodenum. The animals were used in a series of metabolism experiments designed to measure duodenal passage of nonammonia and nonmicrobial N, and to evaluate the extent of degradation of supplemental protein within the rumen. When casein-, soybean meal-, cottonseed mealand corn gluten meal-supplemented diets...

Four rumen fistulated swamp buffaloes were randomly assigned according to a 4×4 Latin square design to investigate the effects of Eucalyptus (E. Camaldulensis) leaf meal (ELM) supplementation as a rumen enhancer on feed intake and rumen fermentation characteristics. The dietary treatments were as follows: T1 = 0 g ELM/hd/d; T2 = 40 g ELM/hd/d; T3 = 80 g ELM/hd/d; T4 = 120 g ELM/hd/d, respective...