The role of the rumen microbiome in detoxifying forage mycotoxins and improving dairy cow health and welfare

在英国，草料青贮是反刍动物的主要饲料，在不利的饲料生长条件下或饲养时夹或捆的有氧污染下，真菌腐烂可能很普遍。在这些条件下，真菌可以产生次生化合物，如真菌毒素，据报道，在英国、爱尔兰和北欧等温带地区，高达90%的牛饲料中都含有真菌毒素。当真菌毒素和生物活性分解产物出现在牛的饲料中时，会对健康、生育力和生产产生负面影响，在极端情况下会导致死亡。此外，霉菌毒素有可能通过牛奶或肉类进入人类食物链。瘤胃微生物群有效发酵饲料的能力也依赖于能够分解日粮中纤维和蛋白质的微生物种类的微妙平衡。由于摄入霉菌毒素而导致的微生物种群失衡或转移可能降低消化效率，从而降低健康、产奶性能和生育力。然而，对于导致草青贮中真菌毒素产生的条件及其对瘤胃微生物组、奶牛代谢和健康的后续影响，人们缺乏了解。此外，在饲粮中添加真菌毒素的负面影响可能会减轻，尽管缺乏对其在以草青贮为基础的饲粮中的有效性的研究。本项目将研究草青贮中真菌毒素对奶牛瘤胃微生物群、瘤胃代谢和生产性能的影响，并评估饲料黏合剂对减轻其影响的效果。

Grass silage is the main forage fed to ruminants in the UK, and under adverse forage growing conditions or aerobic contamination of clamps or bales at feed-out, fungal spoilage can be widespread. Under these conditions fungi can produce secondary compounds such as mycotoxins, which has been reported to occur in up to 90% of forage fed to cattle in temperate regions such as UK, Ireland and Northern Europe. When present in the diet of cattle, mycotoxins and biologically active breakdown products can negatively affect health, fertility and production, and in extreme cases lead to death. Moreover, there is a risk that mycotoxins can be passed into the human food chain via the milk or meat. The ability of the rumen microbiome to efficiently ferment forages is also dependent on a delicate balance of microbial species that can break down fibre and protein in the diet. An imbalance or shift in microbial population as a result of mycotoxin ingestion may reduce digestive efficiency and subsequently reduce health, milk performance and fertility.There is, however, a lack of knowledge on the conditions that lead to mycotoxin production in grass silage, and their subsequent effect on the rumen microbiome, dairy cow metabolism and health. Additionally, the negative effects of mycotoxins may be mitigated by the addition of binders to the diet, although there is a lack of research on their effectiveness in grass silage based dietsThis project will investigate the effect of mycotoxins in grass silage on the rumen microbiome, rumen metabolism and performance in dairy cows, and assess the efficacy of feed binders on mitigating their effects.