Determining host control of rumen microbial profiles in deer

Rumen microbial communities (RMC) are a collection of microbes such as bacteria and archaea within the rumen that assist the host in digestion. Features of these communities have been found to be heritable in cattle and sheep, with a heritability ranging from 0.1-0.4 (González-Recio et al., 2023). The RMC have been shown in other ruminants to be predictive of feed related traits such as methane emissions, a by-product of the fermentation process in the rumen (Hess et al., 2022). Feed related traits such as feed efficiency are integral to the survival of deer particularly at times of year when food availability is limited. Methane production not only negatively impacts the environment but also decreases feed efficiency in ruminants. The aim of this project was to determine the variability of the RMC from microbial count data amongst individual deer and estimate heritability of components of the deer RMC.