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Animal and Poultry Science

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Browsing Animal and Poultry Science by Author "Beukes, Mervyn."

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    Fibrolytic enzyme activity of herbivore microbial ecosystems.
    (2006) Fon, Fabian Nde.; Nsahlai, Ignatius Verla.; Dennison, Clive.; Beukes, Mervyn.
    The aim of this study was to determine firstly if there exist variations in fibrolysis among herbivore microbial ecosystems and secondly, the effect on fibre hydrolysis of compositing the most active systems with ruminal microbial ecosystem harvested from a Jersey cow. A literature review pointed to the complexity of carbohydrate (fibre) and how the physical and chemical nature of the forage carbohydrate can present barriers that hinder digestion in the rumen, especially its association with hemicelluloses, pectin, lignin and tannins. Fresh rumen fluid was collected from fistulated herbivores (Jersey cow and sheep) and faecal samples from non-fistulated herbivores (buffalo, horse, impala, camel, elephant, llama, sheep, wildebeest and elephant). Crude protein samples were precipitated with 60% ammonium sulfate. Sample activities were monitored and optimised by incubating with carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) for 2 h at 39°C. The crude protein samples precipitated from the 11 herbivore microbial ecosystems were active. This was confirmed by an increase in enzyme specific activity with a decrease in total crude protein concentration. In vitro pH optimisation showed a broad range of activity for all ecosystems (4.5-8.0) but for the zebra, horse and elephant which peaked at pH 5. In experiment two (Chapter 4), seasonal variation of the enzymes (exocellulase, endocellulase, cellobiase and xylanase) were monitored through winter and summer. Enzyme specific activity of exocellulase, endocellulase, cellobiase and xylanase were determined by incubation with the specific substrates, crystalline cellulose, CMC, pNPG and xylan, respectively. The amount of reducing sugar released was used to determine the enzyme specific activity. Exocellulase analysis was suitable in winter while summer was preferred for carboxymethyl cellulase and xylanase due to their relative abundance. Cellobiase analysis did not depend on any particular season. Eleven herbivore microbial ecosystems were characterised according to their fibrolytic enzyme specific activities. Enzyme catalytic activities were calculated from kinetic parameters (Km and Vmax) obtained from Eisenthal and Cornish-Bowded plots (Chapter 5). Fibrolytic enzyme expression as well as their activities differed among the 11 ecosystems (P