Rumen microbes: Exploring its potential for productivity and commercial use

Abstract

Ruminant animals are known for their dairy and meat products worldwide. They are the best converters of poor quality fibrous feed ingredients, and presence of rumen, the anaerobic chamber that harbours vast category of microbes, is attributable to this phenomenon. The microbes include bacteria, fungi, protozoa, archaea and bacteriophages that work on synergistically for optimal performance of ruminant animals. These microbes help not only in digestion of fibrous materials, but also involved in various biological functions, such as probiotic activity, antimicrobial metabolite production, synthesis of health promoting bioactive fatty acid molecules, biomass conversion, etc. Earlier, the probiotic organisms used in food animals (calves, sheep, goat, swine and poultry) were mainly originated from dairy products but today organisms of autochthonous origin are being used, as they show better adaptability. Since, rumen do possess organisms with probiotic and fibre utilising activity, these organisms are now explored for their suitability as a probiotic and fibrolytic agent in monogastric food animals. Diversity of rumen microbes was not properly understood through the conventional culture methods, however with advancement in ‘Omic’ technologies, researchers could identify new class of organisms from the rumen and their potential use for the commercial and industrial purposes.