Effects of grain feeding on microbiota in the digestive tract of cattle

Abstract

• Culture-independent high-throughput sequencing methodologies have recently provided comprehensive insights into microbial communities in the digestive tract of cattle. • Although the composition and the functionality of the microbiota in the digestive tract of cattle are considered robust, high-grain feeding reduces the richness, diversity, and functionality of these microbiota, and thereby affects animal health and production. • Cattle vary in their susceptibility to these adverse effects of highgrain feeding. • Adverse effects of high-grain feeding to cattle can be attenuated, but not prevented, by the use of supplements, such as buffers, yeasts, yeast culture products, direct-fed microbials, and probiotics, as well as by microbiota engineering.