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Dietary Supplementation of Usnic Acid, an Antimicrobial Compound in Lichens, Does Not Affect Rumen Bacterial Diversity or Density in Reindeer

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Abstract

Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) may include large proportions of lichens in their winter diet. These dietary lichens are rich in phenolic secondary compounds, the most well-known being the antimicrobial usnic acid. Previous studies have shown that reindeer host rumen bacteria resistant to usnic acid and that usnic acid is quickly detoxified in their rumen. In the present study, reindeer (n = 3) were sampled before, during, and after usnic acid supplementation to determine the effect on their rumen microbial ecology. Ad libitum intake of usnic acid averaged up to 278 mg/kg body mass. Population densities of rumen bacteria and methanogenic archaea determined by real-time PCR, ranged from 1.36 × 109 to 11.8 × 109 and 9.0 × 105 to 1.35 × 108 cells/g wet weight, respectively, and the two populations did not change significantly during usnic acid supplementation (repeated measures ANOVA) or vary significantly between the rumen liquid and particle fraction (paired t test). Rumen bacterial community structure determined by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis did not change in response to intake of usnic acid. Firmicutes (38.7 %) and Bacteriodetes (27.4 %) were prevalent among the 16S rRNA gene sequences (n = 62) from the DGGE gels, but representatives of the phyla Verrucomicrobia (14.5 %) and Proteobacteria (1.6 %) were also detected. Rapid detoxification of the usnic acid or resistance to usnic acid may explain why the diversity of the dominant bacterial populations and the bacterial density in the reindeer rumen does not change during usnic acid supplementation.

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Acknowledgments

This project is funded by The Reindeer Husbandry Research Fund as part of the International Polar Year consortium # 399 EALAT: Climate change and reindeer husbandry. We thank A. Falk, J. Edwards, A. Yannarell, and J.-N. Kim for technical assistance, and R. J. Forster, M. Morrison, and Dr. Zhongtang Yu for advice on the rumen sampling protocol.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, 9037, Tromsø, Norway

    Trine Glad & Monica A. Sundset

  2. Institute of Arctic Biology and Department of Biology and Wildlife, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK, 99775, USA

    Perry Barboza

  3. Department of Animal Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, 61801, USA

    Roderick I. Mackie

  4. Department of Animal Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, 05405, USA

    André-Denis G. Wright

  5. Faculty of Science and Technology, Free University of Bozen, 39100, Bolzano, Bolzano, Italy

    Lorenzo Brusetti

  6. The Norwegian School of Veterinary Science, Sjøgata 39, 9000, Tromsø, Norway

    Svein D. Mathiesen

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  1. Trine Glad
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  2. Perry Barboza
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  3. Roderick I. Mackie
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  4. André-Denis G. Wright
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  5. Lorenzo Brusetti
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  6. Svein D. Mathiesen
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  7. Monica A. Sundset
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Correspondence to Monica A. Sundset.

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Glad, T., Barboza, P., Mackie, R.I. et al. Dietary Supplementation of Usnic Acid, an Antimicrobial Compound in Lichens, Does Not Affect Rumen Bacterial Diversity or Density in Reindeer. Curr Microbiol 68, 724–728 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-014-0534-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-014-0534-7

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