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

Implications 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.