Effect of dietary concentrate to forage ratio on growth performance, rumen fermentation and bacterial diversity of Tibetan sheep under barn feeding on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau

• Published in: PeerJ (San Francisco, CA) CA), 2019-08, Vol.7, p.e7462-e7462, Article e7462
• Main Authors: Liu, Hongjin, Xu, Tianwei, Xu, Shixiao, Ma, Li, Han, Xueping, Wang, Xungang, Zhang, Xiaoling, Hu, Linyong, Zhao, Na, Chen, Yongwei, Pi, Li, Zhao, Xinquan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 16S rRNA; Acetic acid; Bacteria; Biodiversity; Community structure; Concentrate-to-forage ratio; Diet; Energy management; Energy utilization; Experiments; Fatty acids; Feeding; Feeds; Fermentation; Genes; Growth; Growth performance; Legal fees; Livestock; Microbiology; Microorganisms; Next-generation sequencing; Nutrition; Nutrition research; Production capacity; Propionic acid; Proteins; Ratios; RNA; rRNA 16S; Rumen; Rumen bacterial diversity; Rumen fermentation; Rumen fermentation parameter; Sheep; Studies; Tibetan sheep; Veterinary Medicine; Zoology
• ISSN: 2167-8359; 2167-8359
• DOI: 10.7717/peerj.7462

This study aimed to research the effects of different dietary concentrate to forage (C:F) ratio on growth performance, rumen fermentation and bacteria diversity of barn feeding Tibetan sheep. The experiment contains fiver treatments (HS1, HS2 HS3, HS4 and HS5;  = 8, respectively) based on dietary C:F ratios 0:100, 15:85, 30:70, 45:55, and 60:40, respectively. The ruminal bacterial community structure was investigated through high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA genes in V4 hypervariable region. The results showed that increasing dietary concentrate feed level from 0% to 60% exerted a positive effect on DMI, BW gain, gain rate and feed conversation ratio (F ) in Tibetan sheep. The increases dietary concentrate feed level elevatedNH -N, propionate and valerate concentrations, whereas, reduced molar ratio of acetate to propionate (A/P ratio) (