Profiling of rumen fermentation, microbial population and digestibility in goats fed with dietary oils containing different fatty acids

BACKGROUND: The effects of the dietary oils with differing fatty acid profiles on rumen fermentation, microbial population, and digestibility in goats were investigated. In Experiment I, rumen microbial population and fermentation profiles were evaluated on 16 fistulated male goats that were randomly assigned to four treatment groups: i) control (CNT), ii) olive oil (OL), iii) palm olein oil (PO), and iv) sunflower oil (SF). In Experiment II, another group of 16 male goats was randomly assigned to the same dietary treatments for digestibility determination.

RESULTS: Rumen ammonia concentration was higher in CNT group compared to treatment groups receiving dietary oils. The total VFA and acetate concentration were higher in SF and OL groups, which showed that they were significantly affected by the dietary treatments. There were no differences in total microbial population. However, fibre degrading bacteria populations were affected by the interaction between treatment and day of sampling. Significant differences were observed in apparent digestibility of crude protein and ether extract of treatment groups containing dietary oils compared to the control group.

CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that supplementation of different dietary oils containing different fatty acid profiles improved rumen fermentation by reducing ammonia concentration and increasing total VFA concentration, altering fibre degrading bacteria population, and improving apparent digestibility of crude protein and ether extract.