Bacteria community of milk thistle meal and fermented milk thistle meal in vitro gas production test

The annual production of Chinese herb residues (CHRs) is enormous, and reasonable treatment methods are needed to solve the problem of its utilization. The study assessed the impact of intricate probiotics interacting with cellulose on nutrient composition, fermentation characteristics, digestibility, and in vitro ruminal fermentation characteristics of Chinese herb residue (milk thistle meal, MTM), aiming to advance clean utilization technologies for enhancing feed utilization. In vitro gas production experiments have shown that compared with MTM, FMTM has lower methane production (5.70 vs 4.32 mL), higher total volatile fatty acid production (60.25 vs 72.87 mmol/L) and ammonia nitrogen concentration (54.76 vs 57.83 mg/dL) in the rumen, and higher ratios of propionate (248.2 vs 260.9 g/kg), isobutyrate (14.7 vs 16.5 g/kg), and isovalerate (21.0 vs 26.9 g/kg) in the rumen. Furthermore, the rumen fluid from the FMTM group exhibited increased microbial diversity and higher relative abundance of most observed rumen bacteria. In summary, solid-state fermentation with complex probiotics interacting with cellulose is an effective way for the feed utilization of MTM and could be a reference for the application of other Chinese herb residues.