[The effect of cadmium on the protozoan population and rumen fermentation of feed in an artificial rumen].

In our experiment, the effects of 5, 10 and 20 mg cadmium per kg dry matter (DM) on protozoan population and rumen fermentation of feed ration consisting of 11.7 g DM of hay and 2.8 g DM of barley (80: 20%) were followed in artificial rumen (Rusitec). The results of the experiment showed that the addition of 5 and 10 mg cadmium per kg DM less significantly (P < 0.05) decreased the digestibility of DM, organic matter and neutral detergent fibre and significantly (P < 0.01) decreased the digestibility of cellulose of feed ration. It is interesting that the addition of 20 mg cadmium per kg DM did not influence these parameters. Although the total gas production showed a tendency of decrease due to the influence of the addition of 5, 10 and 20 mg cadmium/kg DM, methane and CO2 production was not altered. However, cadmium significantly influenced the production of individual volatile fatty acids-VFA's (mmol/day). The addition of 5, 10 and 20 mg cadmium per kg DM significantly increased acetic acid production (by 10-20%) and decreased propionic acid production (by 18-30%). Therefore, the acetate: propionate ratio was significantly increased (from 1.57 to 2.45-2.60) by the addition of cadmium. The production of n-valeric and iso-valeric acids was also significantly decreased in comparison with the control. The decrease of individual VFA's was more significant at the higher amount of cadmium added into the fermentation system. The proportions of individual VFA's in total VFA production expressed in molar % showed a similar character. The changes in the production of individual VFA's due to the influence of the addition of 5, 10 and 20 mg cadmium per kg DM caused a decrease in energetic efficiency of VFA's (P < 0.001) in comparison with the control. The other parameters of rumen fermentation - utilization of glucose, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production, fermented hexose, fermented amino acids and fermented organic matter (OMF) were not influenced by the cadmium addition. Although the total microbial matter production in effluent and undigested feed (residues) was significantly (P < 0.001) decreased by the addition of 5, 10 and 20 mg cadmium per kg DM, the efficiency of microbial synthesis expressed as YATP and g microbial N/kg OMF was not changed and achieved the values 11.78-12.68 (YATP), 25.56-28.35 (g microbial N/kg OMF), respectively. The total protozoan population was significantly decreased by the cadmium addition mainly as a result of the decrease of infusoria of Entodinium spp.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)