Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-25wd4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T18:24:28.763Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

XIII.—The Mid-Winter Rumen Microfauna of the Seaweed-Eating Sheep of North Ronaldshay*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

J. Margaret Eadie
J. Margaret Eadie
Affiliation:
Rowett Research Institute, Bucksburn, Aberdeenshire.
Get access

Synopsis

In January 1956 a visit was made to North Ronaldshay, one of the Orkney Islands, to examine the rumen ciliate protozoa of the seaweed-fed native sheep. Rumen material from thirteen sheep was examined and the ciliate species identified. The numerical ratio of holotrich to oligotrich ciliates appeared to be much the same as in the hay-fed sheep's rumen; Isotriclia intestinalis Stein was, however, always absent. Certain experiments on the protozoan utilization of carbohydrates were carried out and the results compared with those of similar experiments on rumen liquor from hay-fed sheep. The holotrich ciliates of North Ronaldshay sheep were found to store amylopectin when the rumen liquor was incubated with laminarin, to a lesser extent when incubated with galactose and to be unaffected by mannose. These three results differ from previous experience with hay-fed sheep. No seaweed carbohydrate other than laminarin was utilized by the North Ronaldshay sheep holotrichs in vitro.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Section B: Biological Sciences , Volume 66 , Issue 3 , 1957 , pp. 276 - 287
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1957

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

This paper was assisted in publication by a grant from the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland.

References

References to Literature

Bhatia, B. L., 1936. The Fauna of British India. Protozoa: Ciliophora. Taylor & Francis, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Black, W. A. P., 1948. “The seasonal variation in chemical constitution of some of the sublittoral seaweeds common to Scotland”, J. Soc. Chem. Ind. Lond., 67, 165–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bush, M., and Kofoid, C. A., 1945–1949. “Ciliates from the Sierra Nevada bighorn Ovis canadensis sierræ Grinell”, Univ. Calif. Publ. Zool., 53, 237–261.Google Scholar
Dogiel, V. A., 1925. “Nouveaux infusoires de la famille des Ophryoscolécidés parasites d'antilopes africaines”, Ann. Parasit. Hum. Comp., 3, 133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dogiel, V. A., 1927. “Monographie der Familie Ophryoscolecidæ”, Arch. Protistenk, 59, 1–288.Google Scholar
Dogiel, V. A., 1928. “La faune d'infusoires habitant l'estomac du buffle et du dromadaire”, Ann. Parasit Hum. Comp., 6, 328–338.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eadie, J. M., and Oxford, A. E., 1955. “Factors involved in the production of a novel kind of derangement of storage mechanism in living holotrich ciliate protozoa from sheep rumen”, J. Gen. Microbiol., 12, 298–310.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Farrall, T., 1874. “The agriculture of the islands of Orkney”, Trans. Highl. Agric. Soc. Scot., 6 (4), 83–84.Google Scholar
Heald, P. J., Oxford, A. E., and Sugden, B., 1952. “A convenient method for preparing massive suspensions of virtually bacteria-free ciliate protozoa of the genera Isotricha and Dasytricha for manometric studies”, Nature, 169, 1055.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hsiung, T. S., 1931. “The protozoan fauna of the rumen of the Chinese sheep”, Bull. Fan. Mem. Inst. Peking, 2, 29–43.Google Scholar
Kofoid, C. A., and MacLennan, R. F., 1930. “Ciliates from Bos Indicus Linn. I. The genus Entodinium Stein”, Univ. Calif. Publ. Zool., 33, 471–544.Google Scholar
Kofoid, C. A., and MacLennan, R. F., 1932. “Ciliates from Bos Indicus Linn. II. A revision of Diplodinium Schuberg”, Univ. Calif. Publ. Zool., 37, 53–152.Google Scholar
Kofoid, C. A., and MacLennan, R. F., 1933. “Ciliates from Bos Indicus Linn. III. Epidinium Crawley, Epiplastron gen. nov. and Ophryoscolex Stein”, Univ. Calif. Publ. Zool., 39, 1–34.Google Scholar
Kudo, R. R., 1950. Protozoology. 3rd Ed. Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, U.S.A.Google Scholar
McNaught, M. L., Smith, J. A. B., and Black, W. A. P., 1954. “The utilization of carbohydrates of seaweed by rumen microflora in vitro”, J. Sci. Ed. Agric., 5, 350–352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peat, S., Whelan, W. J., and Lawley, H. G., 1955. “Isolation of mannitol from laminarin”, Chem. and Ind., 35.Google Scholar
Sugden, B., and Oxford, A. E., 1952. “Some cultural studies with holotrich protozoa from the sheep's rumen”, J. Gen. Microbiol., 7, 145–153.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tribe, D. E., and Tribe, E. M., 1949. “Sheep grazing of seaweed. Observations on North Ronaldshay, Orkney Is.”, Agriculture, 56, 416–419.Google Scholar
Wertheim, P., 1935. “A new ciliate Entodinium bovis n. sp., from the stomach of Bos taurus L., with the revision of Entodinium exiguum, E. nanellum, E. simplex, E. dubardi dubardi and E.parvum”, Parasitology, 27, 226–230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar