LETHBRIDGE Ñ The northern musk ox may hold an answer to the mystery of why domesticated ruminants do not benefit from increased feeding portions, says an Agriculture Canada microbiology specialist at the Lethbridge Research Centre.
A joint project with the University of Alaska at Fairbanks is designed to find out why the musk ox, a wild ruminant, can eat twice as much when food is avai-lable, digest it and store the energy for months when there is no food available, research scientist Robert Forster said in an interview.
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In contrast, additional feed to domesticated southern ruminants reduces their ability to digest and much of the additional fibre passes through the animal without being broken down and stored.
“Musk ox have a cyclical diet because of their habitat and they eat twice as much when it is available and we find that their ability to digest goes up, not down, with this extra feeding,” said Forster.
“It is exactly the opposite with domestic ruminants. The more they are fed, the less efficiently they digest.”
He is working on a four to five year project with a University of Alaska researcher to try to figure out why.
Are there different bacteria at work in the musk ox digestive tract? Are there different digestive systems at work?
A microbiological assessment of activities in the musk ox rumen will indicate if there are special digestive bacteria present. Subsequent scientific investigation will determine if those unique bacteria could be transferred to southern domesticated ruminants.
It would mean, said Forster, that livestock producers could increase fibre or feed supplies to their animals when it would useful in the production or efficiency cycle.
