Biochemical and genetic diversity of carbohydrate-fermenting and obligate amino acid-fermenting hyper-ammonia-producing bacteria from Nellore steers fed tropical forages and supplemented with casein

Biochemical and genetic diversity of carbohydrate-fermenting and obligate amino acid-fermenting hyper-ammonia-producing bacteria from Nellore steers fed tropical forages and supplemented with casein

BMC Microbiology, February 2015

25777011

Cláudia Braga Pereira Bento, Analice Cláudia de Azevedo, Edenio Detmann, Hilário Cuquetto Mantovani

Dietary protein plays a major role in ruminant nutrition, and protein supplementation is a widespread practice among farmers in the tropics. Ruminal bacteria are the main agents of dietary protein and amino acid degradation, yet few studies have focused on the isolation and characterization of hyper-ammonia-producing bacteria in animals fed tropical diets or supplemented with rumen-degradable proteins. This work investigated the bacterial community diversity of the rumen of Nellore steers fed tropical forages, with or without casein supplementation. We also isolated and characterized ruminal bacteria showing high levels of ammonia production.