Rumen microbial responses to supplemental nitrate. II. Potential interactions with live yeast culture on the prokaryotic community and methanogenesis in continuous culture

Nitrates have been fed to ruminants, including dairy cows, as an electron sink to mitigate CH4 emissions. In the NO3− reduction process, NO2− can accumulate, which could directly inhibit methanogens and possibly other microbes in the rumen. Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast was hypothesized to decrease NO2− through direct reduction or indirectly by stimulating the bacterium Selenomonas ruminantium, which is among the ruminal bacteria most well characterized to reduce both NO3− and NO2−. Ruminal fluid was incubated in continuous cultures fed diets without or with NaNO3 (1.5% of diet dry matter; i.e., 1.09% NO3−) and without or with live yeast culture (LYC) fed at a recommended 0.010 g/d (scaled from cattle to fermentor intakes) in a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of treatments. Treatments with LYC had increased NDF digestibility and acetate:propionate by increasing acetate molar proportion but tended to decrease total VFA production. The main effect of NO3− increased acetate:propionate by increasing acetate molar proportion; NO3− also decreased molar proportions of isobutyrate and butyrate. Both NO3− and LYC shifted bacterial community composition (based on relative sequence abundance of 16S rRNA genes). An interaction occurred such that NO3− decreased valerate molar proportion only when no LYC was added. Nitrate decreased daily CH4 emissions by 29%. However, treatment × time interactions were present for both CH4 and H2 emission from the headspace; CH4 was decreased by the main effect of NO3− until 6 h postfeeding, but NO3− and LYC decreased H2 emission up to 4 h postfeeding. As expected, NO3− decreased methane emissions in continuous cultures; however, contrary to expectations, LYC did not attenuate NO2− accumulation.