Effect of natural additives on the rumen microbiome following feeding of beef cattle with a blend of natural additives

The indiscriminate use of antibiotics in animal production and human consumption is related to the increase of microorganisms resistant to a wide class of chemical compounds. Thus, alternatives are sought for the use of growth promoters and antimicrobials in animal production. Recent research demonstrates the potential of applying essential oils (OEs) in several areas as potential substitutes for antibiotics. This is because they have characteristics similar to these products. However, there are few data in the literature regarding the actions of OEs in axenic cultures of anaerobic ruminal microorganisms. Thus, a project is proposed to: evaluate the efficacy of essential oils from the sequencing of rumen microorganisms of finished cattle in confinement; determine the genes expressed by the ruminal microbiota; identify pure cultures affected by the presence of OEs; to observe the effect of OEs on ruminal bacteria by electron microscopy; to evaluate the microbial resistance of OEs in ruminal bacteria; and evaluate the metatranscriptome of axenic culture of ruminal bacteria cultured with OEs. It is expected to identify species strongly affected by OEs and metabolic routes and mechanisms used by ruminal microorganisms to deal with the presence of OEs and their active compounds. Queen's University of Belfast is part of the Russel Group, which contains the 24 best institutions in the UK. An important part of Queen's University's research is related to food safety. Thus, the university has highly qualified equipment and technical staff for research related to the entire food production chain.