Nutrient Synchrony: Is It a Suitable Strategy to Improve Nitrogen Utilization and Animal Performance?(Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION An excessive supply of feed nutrients results in an increase in waste excreted to the environment. The possible environmental pollutants produced by livestock are nitrogen, phosphorus and other organic compounds (e.g., methane and nitrous oxide). Excretion of these components to the environment may be increased by inefficient digestion and metabolism of the ruminant animal, and much of the inefficiency may occur in the rumen due to complicated and competitive metabolic pathways of rumen microbiota (Russell, 2002). In ruminants, actual digestion by the enzymes secreted by the host animal occurs after rumen microbes have modified feed nutrients into different forms (e.g. volatile fatty acids, ammonia and microbial protein). Digestion and metabolism of ruminants, thus, depend much on rumen microbial metabolism (Khezri et al., 2009). Therefore, better understanding and subsequent manipulation of rumen function is a prerequisite for efficient animal production (milk or meat) and for lower nutrient losses during digestion and metabolism.