Li Chuang, Cheng Zhiqiang, Sun Xuezhao, Yang Jingquan, Chen Ning, Yang Kailun, Wang Mengzhi
State Key Laboratory of Sheep Genetic Improvement and Healthy Production, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Reclamation Sciences, Shihezi, 832000, China.
College of Animal Science, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Urumqi, 830091, China.
BMC Microbiol. 2025 Aug 22;25(1):527. doi: 10.1186/s12866-025-04211-0.
The rumen hosts a diverse microbial community and serves as a natural bioreactor that efficiently utilizes plant biomass. To explore the potential of silage (SS) as an alternative to whole-plant corn silage (WS), this study evaluated the growth performance, rumen microbiota, serum metabolome, and rumen fermentation characteristics of Hu sheep. The aim was to assess the feasibility of SS as a feed resource and to identify specific rumen bacteria that interact with host metabolism.
Feeding Hu sheep a diet containing 50% WS and 50% SS (T1 group) improved both growth performance and rumen fermentation compared to a diet of 100% WS (T0 group). In contrast, replacing WS entirely with SS (T2 group) did not affect growth performance. Microbiome analysis revealed that SS inclusion increased the relative abundance of beneficial bacteria. In particular, the T1 group showed an enrichment of , while the T2 group had higher levels of , , and . Metabolomic analysis indicated that both T1 and T2 diets enhanced purine metabolism.
Partial replacement (50%) of WS with SS improves rumen microbial composition, promotes purine metabolism, enhances rumen fermentation, and supports better growth performance in Hu sheep. These findings demonstrate that SS is a promising alternative to WS for enhancing growth and rumen function in ruminants.
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12866-025-04211-0.
瘤胃中存在多样的微生物群落，是一个能有效利用植物生物质的天然生物反应器。为探究青贮高粱（SS）替代全株玉米青贮（WS）的潜力，本研究评估了湖羊的生长性能、瘤胃微生物群、血清代谢组和瘤胃发酵特性。目的是评估SS作为饲料资源的可行性，并确定与宿主代谢相互作用的特定瘤胃细菌。
与100% WS日粮（T0组）相比，给湖羊饲喂含50% WS和50% SS的日粮（T1组）可提高生长性能和瘤胃发酵。相反，用SS完全替代WS（T2组）对生长性能没有影响。微生物组分析表明，添加SS增加了有益细菌的相对丰度。特别是，T1组显示 富集，而T2组的 、 和 水平较高。代谢组分析表明，T1和T2日粮均增强了嘌呤代谢。
用SS部分替代（50%）WS可改善瘤胃微生物组成，促进嘌呤代谢，增强瘤胃发酵，并支持湖羊更好的生长性能。这些发现表明，在提高反刍动物生长和瘤胃功能方面，SS是WS的一个有前景的替代品。
在线版本包含可在10.1186/s12866-025-04211-0获取的补充材料。
