TY - JOUR AU - Nilsson, Anna AU - Ã…hman, Birgitta AU - Murphy, Michael AU - Soveri, Timo PY - 2009/01/28 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Rumen function in reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) after sub-maintenance feed intake and subsequent feeding JF - Rangifer JA - Ran VL - 26 IS - 2 SE - Articles DO - 10.7557/2.26.2.189 UR - https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/rangifer/article/view/189 SP - 73-83 AB - <p>The aim of this experiment was to ascertain how different feeding strategies affect the rumen function of reindeer after nutritional deprivation. Rumen adaptation to various diets, after restricted feeding, was studied in 44 eight-month-old semi-domesticated female reindeer (<em>Rangifer tarandus tarandus</em>). All animals were initially fed a simulated winter diet based on lichens (lichen diet). A control group, continuously offered the lichen diet <em>ad libitum</em>, was compared to four groups of reindeer that were first restrictively fed (half the <em>ad libitum</em> ration) for eight days followed by one day without feed. The rumen content of restrictively fed animals had higher pH, lower dry matter content and volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentration, a changed composition of VFAs, and lower counts of bacteria compared to that of the control group. The effect was less dramatic than previously reported for reindeer starved for several days. On day 10, the four restrictively fed groups were introduced to different diets. One group was re-fed the lichen diet <em>ad libitum</em> and did not differ from the control group when the experiment ended after five weeks of feeding. Two groups were fed grain-based reindeer feed (pellets) combined with either lichens or grass silage, and one group was fed silage with a gradually increased addition of pellets. Diarrhoea and so called &ldquo;wet belly&rdquo; occurred initially in the three latter groups. After five weeks of feeding, the reindeer in the three pellet-fed groups had an altered composition of VFAs and higher counts of protozoa, and also tended to have higher total VFA concentration in the rumen, compared to the control animals and those re-fed the lichen diet. Only small changes were observed in the size of rumen papillae and these could be associated with energy intake. Protozoa decreased over time on the lichen diet. This study confirmed that rumen function was significantly affected by a relatively short period of restricted feed intake. The experiment also revealed a clear difference in rumen function between reindeer adapted to a lichen-based diet and those adjusted to basically grain-based diets. Bacteria that were utilising lichens were drastically reduced when the diet lacked lichens; consequently these bacteria may be regarded as a substrate-specific group.</p><p>Abstract in Swedish / Sammandrag:</p><p>Vomfunktionen hos ren (<em>Rangifer tarandus tarandus</em>) efter begr&auml;nsat f&ouml;dointag och p&aring;f&ouml;ljande utfodring Ett f&ouml;rs&ouml;k utf&ouml;rdes med syfte att ta reda p&aring; hur olika utfodringsstrategier p&aring;verkar vomfunktionerna hos ren (<em>Rangifer t. tarandus</em>) efter en period med l&aring;gt n&auml;ringsintag. Vommens anpassning till olika dieter studerades hos 44 &aring;tta m&aring;nader gamla honkalvar Alla renarna gavs initialt en simulerad vinterdiet baserad p&aring; lav (lavdiet). En kontrollgrupp, som fick &auml;ta fritt av lavdieten under hela f&ouml;rs&ouml;ket, j&auml;mf&ouml;rdes med fyra grupper renar, som f&ouml;rst utfodrades restriktivt med lavdieten (halva fodergivan j&auml;mf&ouml;rt med fri utfodring) under &aring;tta dagar och sedan var helt utan foder under en dag. Vominneh&aring;ll fr&aring;n de restriktivt utfodrade renarna hade h&ouml;gre pH, l&auml;gre torrsubstans, l&auml;gre koncentration av flyktiga fettsyror (VFA), f&ouml;r&auml;ndrad sammans&auml;ttning av VFA och mindre m&auml;ngd bakterier &auml;n vad som uppm&auml;ttes i kontrollgruppen. Effekten var inte s&aring; dramatisk som den som tidigare rapporterats f&ouml;r renar som svultit flera dagar. Dag 10 sattes de fyra restriktivt utfodrade grupperna p&aring; olika dieter. En grupp utfodrades &aring;ter med lavdieten i fri m&auml;ngd, och skiljde sig inte fr&aring;n kontrollgruppen n&auml;r f&ouml;rs&ouml;ket avslutades efter fem veckors utfodring. Tv&aring; grupper gavs spannm&aring;lsbaserat renfoder (pellets) kombinerat med antingen lav eller ensilage gjort p&aring; gr&auml;s, och en grupp gavs f&ouml;rst enbart ensilage och d&auml;refter pellets i gradvis &ouml;kande m&auml;ngd. Flera renar i de tre senare grupperna drabbades av diarr&eacute; och s&aring; kallad &rdquo;bl&ouml;t buk&rdquo;. Efter fem veckors utfodring hade renarna i de tre pelletsutfodrade grupperna en &auml;ndrad sammans&auml;ttning av VFA och mer protozooer, och tenderade &auml;ven att ha h&ouml;gre total VFA-koncentration, &auml;n de tv&aring; grupper som fick lavdiet. Endast sm&aring; f&ouml;r&auml;ndringar observerades i storleken p&aring; vompapiller, och dessa kunde kopplas till energiintag. Protozooerna minskade med tiden p&aring; lavdieten. Denna unders&ouml;kning bekr&auml;ftar att vomfunktionerna p&aring;verkas signifikant av en relativt kort period med minskat f&ouml;dointag. Unders&ouml;kningen visar ocks&aring; en klar skillnad i vomfunktion mellan renar anpassade till lavdiet och dem som &auml;r anpassade till en i huvudsak spannm&aring;lsbaserad diet. Bakterier som v&auml;xte p&aring; lav minskade drastiskt n&auml;r laven utesl&ouml;ts ur dieten; dessa bakterier kunde f&ouml;ljaktligen betraktas som en substrat-specifik grupp.</p> ER -