ISOLATION AND PARTIAL CHARACTERIZATION OF RUMINOCOCCUS FLAVEFACIENS FROM THE RUMEN OF SWAMP BUFFALO

Fibrolytic bacteria play a particularly important role in the fiber degradation in the rumen and could be the keys of improving a production performance of ruminants. The ability to utilize low-quality roughage for swamp buffalo has been reported, thus, the rumen of swamp buffalo may be a suitable source for isolation of the potent fibrolytic bacteria. Total of 165 gram-negative cocci fibrolytic bacteria were screened from the rumen contents of four swamp buffalo. Six isolates were identified as Ruminococcus flavefaciens and the phylogenetically grouped by type strain. Isolate OS14 showed higher fiber digestion in either mono-or cocultures with non-fibrolytic bacteria than type strains C94. Dry matter digestibility of cellulose powder in co-culture of OS14 with all strains of non-fibrolytic was increased. Moreover, the coculture of OS14 with S137 showed the highest fiber digestion and notably increased concentration levels of acetate and propionate. These results indicate that cross-feeding relationship between R. flavefaciens with non-fibrolytic bacteria be able to improve fiber digestion but the amount of improvement may perhaps be based on the combination of the bacterial strains. The in vitro fermentation products and abundance in cocultures need to be quantified in a further study.