Indian Journal of Animal Nutrition

An experiment was conducted on 4 adult male fistulated cattle and 4 buffaloes maintained on wheat straw- groundnut cake diet (10–12% CP)) Rumen contents, about 10% of rumen volume were exchanged (transinoculated) in each cattle and buffalo by making pairs. Three dlgestion trials were carried out in phases, one before the exchange (T₁), the second after the exchange (T₂) and third subsequently after the re-exchange of rumen contents (T³) between cattie and buffalo. The protozoal population was counted m rumen liquor samiles collected at 0, 3 and 6 hr postfeeding while the total viable and cellulolytic bacterial population were enumerated in the samples collected at 4 and 6 hr post-ffeding. Presence and establishment of three protozoal species viz. Ophryoscolex purkynei, Epidinium ecandatum and Diplodinium cristagalli were recorded at an interval of 8 hr from 0 to 48 hr sampling during T₂ and T₃ phases.

The process of transinoculation of rumen contents significantty (P<0.05) increased tte average protozoal population a bott ruminants, though buffalo exhibited more (P<0.05) microfauna than cattle, while protozoal population size remained unaltered between T₂ and T₃ phase. However, these two latter stages of transinoculation (17.63 x 10² and 17.63 x 10⁸) helped in multiptying (P<0.05) total viable bacteria compared to T₁ (11.25 x 10⁸/ml). Transinoculation of rumen contents in T₃ (4.15 x 10⁸) also improved (P<0.05) the cellulolytic bacterial profile compared to T₁ (2.54 x 10⁸) and T₂ (3.12 x 10⁸/ml) stages in both ruminant species. Three protozoal species Ophryoscolex purkynei, Epidinium ecaudatum and Diplodinium cristagalli which were host specific were observed to get established in cattle and buffalo consequent upon transinoculation.