Comparison of rumen bacterial communities in dairy herds of different production

Abstract Background The purpose of this study was to compare the rumen bacterial composition in high and low yielding dairy cows within and between two dairy herds. Eighty five Holstein dairy cows in mid-lactation (79–179 days in milk) were selected from two farms: Farm 12 (M305 = 12,300 kg; n = 47; 24 primiparous cows, 23 multiparous cows) and Farm 9 (M305 = 9700 kg; n = 38; 19 primiparous cows, 19 multiparous cows). Each study cow was sampled once using the stomach tube method and processed for 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing using the Ion Torrent (PGM) platform. Results Differences in bacterial communities between farms were greater (Adonis: R2 = 0.16; p