Manipulating Rumen Fermentation to Improve Efficiency and Reduce Environmental Impact

摘要

Microbial fermentation in the rumen plays a central role in the ability of ruminants to utilize fibrous substrates; however rumen fermentation also has potential deleterious environmental consequences as it ultimately leads to the emission of greenhouse gases and breakdown of dietary protein leading to excessive N excretion in faeces and urine. Given the importance of rumen fermentation, it is perhaps not surprising that a great deal of effort has been devoted to investigating methods for manipulating this complex ecosystem.Some thirteen years ago a paper was presented at the Nottingham Feed Conference on "Developments in rumen fermentation-The scientists view" (Newbold, Stewart and Wallace, 2001); given the passing of time and advances in the subject area it seems appropriate to revisit the topic and specifically to consider:- Targets for manipulation: i.e. what are the main drivers in terms of altered outputs that are informing research in the area?- Approaches to manipulation: i.e. what are the prominent approaches to manipulation that are being investigated?