The effect of nutrients on feed intake in ruminants

The purpose of the present review is to examine the role played by nutrients in controlling feed intake in ruminants, in light of their particular anatomical, physiological, nutritional and behavioural characteristics. The ration is first digested in the rumen for several hours by microbial fermentation. Volatile fatty acids, which constitute 50-75% of a ruminant's energy supply, considerably depress feed intake when administered by short-term infusion into the rumen. However, this effect seems to be largely due to osmolarity problems. Only propionate seems to have a specific action, unrelated to osmolarity, in the mesenteric or portal veins. Nitrogenous nutrients have little short-term effect on feed intake, except when there is excess NH3 in the rumen. Metabolic cues from intestinal digestion, particularly of glucose and starch, have very little short- or long-term influence in controlling feed intake, in comparison with rumen digestion cues. However, the short-term responses in feeding behaviour do not always reflect longer-term effects on feed intake control. The effects of volatile fatty acid infusion on feed intake are much less significant over the long term, except in the case of propionate. The nutrients required for good microbial activity (proteins in the rumen) generally promote feed intake, whereas nutrients that disrupt rumen functioning (lipids) reduce feed intake. After a learning period, preferences are always governed by a tendency toward optimum rumen functioning, rather than by animal nutritional requirements, although the two factors are not independent. Ruminants, due to their particular anatomical and nutritional characteristics, have, in the course of their evolution, developed specific feed intake control mechanisms based on nutritional cues.