Temporal stability of the rumen microbiota. NutriBeef2014

The stability of the rumen microbial community was determined as part of a study assessing the effect of basal diet and supplementation on feed efficiency and methane production in beef cattle. Subgroups of 50 beef steers were fed either of two diet formulations consisting of approximately 10:90 or 50:50 forage:concentrate ratios respectively. Supplements of a high oil feed by-product and nitrate, were added either individually or in combination. Digesta samples were taken at time points over ~200 days during the finishing phase of the cattle. In total, 313 16S rRNA gene amplicon libraries were prepared and sequenced.Bray Curtis dissimilarity was used to determine clustering of the microbial communities. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed highly significant (p25 days in the high concentrate groups. After this time point, however, no significant variability was detected. This result indicated that, once adapted to a change in diet, the rumen microbial community remains in a relatively stable alternate state