Role of live microbial feed supplements with reference to anaerobic fungi in ruminant productivity: A review

To keep the concept of a safe food supply to the consumers, animal feed industries world over are showing an increasing interest in the direct-fed microbials (DFM) for improved animal performance in terms of growth or productivity. This becomes all the more essential in a situation, where a number of the residues of antibiotics and/or other growth stimulants reach in milk and meat with a number of associated potential risks for the consumers. Hence, in the absence of growth stimulants, a positive manipulation of the rumen microbial ecosystem to enhance the feedstuff utilization for improved production efficiency by ruminants has become of much interest to the researchers and entrepreneurs. A few genera of live microbes (i.e., bacteria, fungi and yeasts in different types of formulations from paste to powder) are infrequently used as DFM for the domestic ruminants. These DFM products are live microbial feed supplements containing naturally occurring microbes in the rumen. Among different DFM possibilities, anaerobic rumen fungi (ARF) based additives have been found to improve ruminant productivity consistently during feeding trials. Administration of ARF during the few trials conducted, led to the increased weight gain, milk production, and total tract digestibility of feed components in ruminants. Anaerobic fungi in the rumen display very strong cell-wall degrading cellulolytic and xylanolytic activities through rhizoid development, resulting in the physical disruption of feed structure paving the way for bacterial action. Significant improvements in the fiber digestibility were found to coincide with increases in ARF in the rumen indicating their role. Most of the researches based on DFM have indicated a positive response in nutrient digestion and methane reducing potential during in vivo and/or in vitro supplementation of ARF as DFM. Therefore, DFM especially ARF will gain popularity but it is necessary that all the strain

New aspects and strategies for methane mitigation from ruminants

The growing demand for sustainable animal production is compelling researchers to explore the potential approaches to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases from livestock that are mainly produced by enteric fermentation. Some potential solutions, for instance, the use of chemical inhibitors to reduce methanogenesis, are not feasible in routine use due to their toxicity to ruminants, inhibition of efficient rumen function or other transitory effects. Strategies, such as use of plant secondary metabolites and dietary manipulations have emerged to reduce the methane emission, but these still require extensive research before these can be recommended and deployed in the livestock industry sector. Furthermore, immunization vaccines for methanogens and phages are also under investigation for mitigation of enteric methanogenesis. The increasing knowledge of methanogenic diversity in rumen, DNA sequencing technologies and bioinformatics have paved the way for chemogenomic strategies by targeting methane producers. Chemogenomics will help in finding target enzymes and proteins, which will further assist in the screening of natural as well chemical inhibitors. The construction of a methanogenic gene catalogue through these approaches is an attainable objective. This will lead to understand the microbiome function, its relation with the host and feeds, and therefore, will form the basis of practically viable and eco-friendly methane mitigation approaches, while improving the ruminant productivity

Integration of Pre-Treatment with UF/RO Membrane Process for Waste Water Recovery and Reuse in Agro-Based Pulp and Paper Industry

This recent study aims to evaluate the efficacy of membrane filtration on recovery of water resource from agro-waste such as bagasse, crop-based pulp and paper mill waste. A mini pilot scale membrane system having a combination of pre-treatment filter unit (pre-filter, sediment filter and pre-carbon filter), ultra-filtration and reverse osmosis with spiral wound configuration were employed to evaluate the water reuse efficacy of effluent coming from the secondary clarifier of the conventional treatment plant of the mill. The operational conditions were optimized using Taguchi method at pH 8, temperature 32 °C, and pressure 2 bar and a flow rate of 60 l/hr. The qualities of the effluent from the secondary clarifier, and the permeate from both the combination, viz. Combination 1 (pre-treatment + ultra-filtration) and Combination 2 (pre-treatment + ultra-filtration+ reverse osmosis) were analyzed and the percentage reduction in pH, TDS, TSS, BOD, COD, Color, Lignin, Potassium and Sodium were calculated. The elimination of TDS, COD and BOD with Combination 1 was not promising (88%) the contaminants in both paper mill effluents. The obtained qualities of water from all the combinations were compared with the tolerance standard for reuse as process water. The quality of effluent from the secondary clarifier did not agree with any class of water quality. The permeate from the combination of pre-treatment and UF sufficiently reduced the TSS to reach the requirement. However, the combination of (pre-treatment + UF + RO) adequately complied with the quality standard required for reuse in the making of all grades of paper

Buwchfawromyces eastonii gen. nov., sp. nov.: a new anaerobic fungus (Neocallimastigomycota) isolated from buffalo faeces

The novel anaerobic fungus Buwchfawromyces eastonii gen. nov., sp. nov., belonging to order Neocallimastigales (phylum Neocallimastigomycota) is described. Morphologically similar to Piromyces but genetically quite distinct, this fungus (isolate GE09) was first isolated from buffalo faeces in west Wales and then subsequently isolated from sheep, cattle and horse in the same area. Phylogenetic analysis of LSU and ITS sequence confirmed that B. eastonii isolates formed a distinct clade close to the polycentric Anaeromyces spp. The morphology of GE09 is monocentric with monoflagellate zoospores. However, the sporangial stalk (sporangiophore) is often distinctly swollen and the proximal regions of the rhizoidal system twisted in appearance