The Ruminal Microbiome and Metabolome Alterations Associated with Diet-Induced Milk Fat Depression in Dairy Cows

Milk fat depression (MFD) syndrome represents a significant drawback to the dairy industry. The aim of this study was to unravel the ruminal metabolome-microbiome interaction in response to diet-induced MFD in dairy cows. Twelve healthy second parity Holstein dairy cows (days in milk (DIM) = 119 ± 14) were randomly assigned into control (CON, n = 6) group and treatment (TR, n = 6) group. Cows in TR group received a high-starch total mixed ration (TMR) designed to induce an MFD syndrome. Decreased milk fat yield and concentration in TR cows displayed the successful development of MFD syndrome. TR diet increased the relative abundance of Prevotella and decreased the relative abundance of unclassified Lachnospiraceae, Oribacterium, unclassified Veillonellaceae and Pseudobutyrivibrio in ruminal fluid. Metabolomics analysis revealed that the ruminal fluid content of glucose, amino acids and amines were significantly increased in TR cows compared with CON cows. Correlation analysis revealed that the concentration of amines and amino acids were highly correlated with the abundance of Oribacterium, Pseudobutyrivibrio, RC9_gut_group, unclassified BS11_gut_group and Selenomonas. In general, these findings revealed that TR diet reduced the rumination time and altered rumen fermentation type, which led to changes in the composition of ruminal microbiota and metabolites, and caused MFD.