Ruminal Methane Emission, Microbial Population and Fermentation Characteristics in Sheep as Affected by <i>Malva sylvestris</i> Leaf Extract: <i>in vitro</i> Study

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate <em>in vitro</em> effect of <em>Malva sylvestris</em> leaf extract (at 0, 25, 50 and 100 µL/30 mL of medium) on sheep ruminal cellulolytic and total viable bacteria growth, protozoa populations, methane production, neutral detergent fiber degradability (NDFD) and fermentation efficiency of oat hay. The addition of <em>Malva sylvestris</em> leaf extract at 25, 50 and 100 µL led to a linear increase (P<0.01) <em>in vitro</em> truly degraded dry matter (INTDDM), NDFD and partitioning factor (PF) of oat hay and decrease (P<0.01) methane emission after 24 hours of incubation. The addition of <em>Malva sylvestris</em> leaf extract resulted in a decrease (P<0.01) in potential of gas production at 25 and 50 µL and increase in lag time (0.95, 1.01 and 1.13 h relative to 0.61 h), constant rate of gas production (<em>b</em>)and gas produced at half-life (<em>c</em>)at 25, 50 and 100 µL<em>.</em> The addition of this extract decreased a number of total protozoa and <em>Entodinium</em>, <em>Isotrichae</em>, <em>Diplodinium</em> and <em>Ophryoscolex</em> species (P<0.01). The number of total and cellulolytic bacteria was not influenced by the addition of <em>Malva sylvestris</em> leaf extract. The result of this study demonstrated that <em>Malva sylvestris </em>extract had some potential for improving the rumen fermentation.