Cereals Bond Trounces Subacute Rumen Acidosis

This perspective article provides a feasible ideology based on which modern ruminant enterprises will learn to vigilantly include mixtures of hard and soft cereal grains in optimizing rumen environment. Subacute Rumen Acidosis (SARA), variably defined as a common and economically important metabolic disease, occurs arguably when rumen pH declines below 5.8-6 for a long-lasting period of time of several hours. Prolonged SARA reduces high-producing dairy and beef cattle rumen health. As a result, microbial protein synthesis efficiency drops and microbial population diversity adversely changes. Meanwhile, endotoxins released from disturbed microbes enter circulation and mediate inadequately known mechanisms towards triggered inflammatory responses and reduced immune function. As a result of rumen and splanchnic distress, harmonic nutrient and substrate uptake and use by mammary and muscle tissues are impaired. This cascade results in major losses in productivity, health and farm economics.