Effect of dietary supplementation of moringa oleifera on the production performance and fecal methanogenic community of lactating dairy cows

Abstract

Development of alternative forage resources is of great importance to provide necessary nutrients and minimize greenhouse gas emissions in ruminant production. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of dietary supplementation of Moringa oleifera on the production performance and fecal methanogenic community in dairy cows using methyl-coenzyme M reductase α-subunit gene. Sixty-four cows were allocated to one of four treatments: Basal diet without M. oleifera (control) or low (3% w/w, M3), medium (6%, M6), or high (9%, M9) supplementation with M. oleifera. This study demonstrated that different supplementation levels of Moringa oleifera in the diet achieved similar feed intake and milk production, but adding 6% of Moringa oleifera improved milk fat content. Two families, two phyla, three genera, and three species in total were identified among the four treatments. The fecal archaeal community in the control treatment was predominated by Methanobrevibacter (39.1% of the total sequence reads) followed by Methanosphaera and Methanocorpusculum at the genus level. The increased abundance of the Methanosphaera genus and Methanosphaera sp. ISO3-F5 species was induced by secondary metabolites of Moringa oleifera in the diet. Results indicated that Moringa oleifera supplementation not only improved dairy product quality but could also potentially reduce methane emissions.