Investigating genotype and environment effects on the rumen microbiome.
Above: Dr Helen Golder
Lead Author: Helen Golder
Project P2a: Longevity
There is currently a lack of capacity to rapidly and accurately detect an imbalance of the microbial community in the rumen.
Dairy UP is validating potential markers and technologies (sensors, AI, etc.) to quantify production responses and recoveries to rumen microbial imbalances.
This ongoing research aims to improve phenotypic definitions of the rumen environment that affect the interaction between the cow and rumen microbes. Optimising this interaction may enhance productivity in response to challenges, such as ruminal acidosis.
This abstract reports on the challenges of defining microbial imbalances and the questions that need to be addressed in future Dairy UP work. This builds on previous work that found only a tendency for association with being in the low-risk acidosis category. However, associations were identified between the host and relative abundance of individual bacterial phyla and families. Markers or tendencies for markers were also found for several volatile fatty acids. Some rumen microbes have demonstrated a heritability of ≥0.15.
About Dairy UP
Dairy UP is a collaborative research, development and extension program for the NSW dairy industry. It aims to unlock the potential of pastures, cows, water and milk to increase productivity and profitability, and de-risk the industry and develop new markets.