Essential oil effect on ruminal microbial efficiency in continuous culture system

Abstract

This study aims to assess the effects of essential oils, specifically essential oil of eucalyptus, on the production of short chain fatty acids, methane, and on the estimation of the ruminal microbial protein synthesis using the continuous culture system technique. The oils will be added immediately after continuous culture feeding. There will be three treatments: control (without essential oil addition), addition of 500mg/kg of essential oil, and 1000mg/kg of essential oil. There will be two donors (steers; n = 2; BW = 520 ± 30 kg) for the ruminal fluid that will be used in this study. This ruminal fluid will be collected before feeding, at 09:00, post-feeding at 10:00 and 11:00 h, and before the evening feed at 21:00 h. On the first day of each period, all fermenters will be inoculated with ruminal fluid and in the On the morning of d 5 through 7 after the initial inoculation, the entire quantity of effluent collected will be frozen, which will correspond to a 24-h collection of effluent for d 4 through 6. On the morning of d 7, after the sample had been removed from the fermenter, the entire contents of the fermenter will be retained for further analysis of methane, short-chain fatty acids and bacterial fraction. (AU)