Dr. Vivek Fellner

INTRODUCTIONRumen microbes ferment dietary carbohydrates and protein to obtain ATP, which in turn is the major source of energy required for microbial growth. The two major reactions of rumen fermentation are volatile fatty acids (VFA) and microbial cells; the former are a primary source of metabolizable energy and the latter the primary source of metabolizable amino acids for maintenance and milk ...

 BackgroundExtremely high price of fish meal and whey protein concentrate increases overall cost of pork production. Because of advances in biotechnology, the use of supplemental amino acids in animal feeding are extended to Lys, Met, Thr, Trp, Val, Gln, and possibly Ile. Utilization of these essential amino acids as feed additives benefits swine industry by allowing nutritionists to use high ...

Ionophores and supplemental fat are fed to lactating cows to improve feed efficiency. Their effect on rumen fermentation is similar, but less is known about their impact on rumen microbes. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of monensin (M), bacitracin (B), and soybean oil (O) on microbial populations. Mixed cultures of rumen microbes were incubated in 5 dual-flow continuous f ...

The effect of feeding an all-TMR diet v. an all pasture diet to dairy cows has been examined previously (Kolver & Muller, 1998 ; Tucker et al. 2001). Others have examined the merit of including supplemental concentrate to cows on pasture (White et al. 2002; Fontaneli et al. 2005) as well as some combination of TMR plus pasture (Soriano et al. 2001 ; Bargo et al. 2002). Our present study was de ...