Changes of ruminal epimural bacteria before, during and after long-term diet induced transient subacute rumen acidosis. Diet affects ruminal bovine epithelial bacteria

This study aimed to investigate the impact of diet induced subacute rumen acidosis (SARA) in a transient feeding model on the ruminal bacterial epithelial microbiome in dairy cattle. Eight dry dairy cows were fed high-grain diet, mainly consisting of barley grain, wheat, corn, and rapeseed meal. Baseline diet was a forage-only diet consisting of hay and grass silage Feeding model was conducted as follow: one week adaptation (10% daily from 0 to 60%, on dry matter basis), one week SARA challenge, one week only forage-feeding and two weeks SARA challenge again (this time using a two-days adaptation phase). DNA was isolated from the rumen mucosa and used for Illumina MiSeq 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing.