Changes of ruminal epimural bacteria before, during and after long-term diet induced persistent subacute rumen acidosis

This study aimed to investigate the impact of diet induced subacute rumen acidosis (SARA) in a persistent 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) followed by four weeks SARA challenge. DNA was isolated from the rumen mucosa and used for Illumina MiSeq 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing.