Effect of Cellulose Degrading Bacteria Isolated from Wild and Domestic Ruminants on In vitro Dry Matter Digestibility of Feed and Enzyme Production

Cellulolytic bacterial strains have been isolated from the faeces of wild (blackbuck, Antilope cervicapra; nilgai, Baselophus tragocamelus chinkara, Gazella gazella spotted deer, Axis axis and hog deer, Cervus porcinus) and rumen liquor of domestic (sheep, Ovis aries) ruminants. Five best cellulose degrading bacterial isolates (Ruminococcus sp.) were used as microbial feed additive along with buffalo rumen liquor as inoculum to study their effect on digestibility of feed and enzyme production in in vitro conditions. The bacterial isolate from chinkara (CHI-2) showed the highest per cent apparent dry matter (DM) digestibility ($35.40{\pm}0.60$), true dry matter digestibility ($40.80{\pm}0.69$) and NDF ($26.38{\pm}0.83$) digestibility (p<0.05) compared to control ($32.73{\pm}0.56$, $36.64{\pm}0.71$ and $21.16{\pm}0.89$, respectively) and other isolates at 24 h of incubation with lignocellulosic feeds (wheat straw and wheat bran, 80:20). The same isolate also exhibited the highest activities of fibre degrading enzymes like carboxymethylcellulase, xylanase, ${\beta}$-glucosidase and acetyl esterase. The bacterial isolate from chinkara (Gazella gazella) appears to have a potential to be used as feed additive in the diet of ruminants for improving utilization of nutrients from lignocellulosic feeds.