Microbial Eco-system of the Gastro-intestinal Tract of Wild Herbivorous Animals

Sahu, N.P. and Kamra, D.N. 2002. Microbial eco-system of the gastrointestinal tract of wild herbivorous animals. J. Appl. Anim. Res., 21: 207–230. The microbial eco-system of the gastro-intestinal tract plays a very significant role in bioconversion of lignocellulosic feeds into volatile fatty acids. Their role becomes more important when the diet given to the animals is of poor quality e.g. in the wild animals, which have to survive on the natural vegetation in the forests and in lean season the availability of nutritious feed is scarce. Thus the animals have to depend upon the efficiency of the microbial eco-system of the gastro-intestinal tract for extracting the maximum possible nutrients from such feeds. The literature available on the eco-system of wild animals is not much, but these studies conducted in different laboratories have been compiled and presented in this review. Most of the microbial groups reported in wild animals are similar to those found in the domestic animals, but there do exist some exceptions in which new species of protozoa, bacteria and fungi have been reported. Some of these microbes are host specific. Therefore, the studies of the microbial eco-system of the gastro-intestinal tract of wild animals is very important and interesting.