Investigating the establishment of the rumen and oral bacterial communities in beef cattle and assessing the applicability of using the oral bacterial community composition as a proxy for rumen bacterial community structure in cattle.

Authors: Adams S, Lakamp A, Aluthge N, Laible E, Loy JD, Spangler ML, Fernando SC.

DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1667498

Abstract Summary

Researchers found that oral and rumen bacterial communities in cattle develop differently and remain distinct throughout the production cycle. While oral swabs cannot reliably substitute for rumen samples in microbiome studies, they show promise for predicting cattle traits like weaning weight (30% accuracy vs. 37% for rumen samples), offering a less invasive alternative for phenotype assessment in beef production.

Why Brain? 🧠

Oral bacteria samples cannot reliably substitute for rumen samples in cattle microbiome studies, but may help predict important production traits like weaning weight non-invasively.

License: CC BY.

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