Comparison of fatty acid composition of bacterial and protozoal fractions in rumen fluid of sheep fed diet supplemented with sunflower, rapeseed and linseed oils

The objective of this study was to investigate effects of oil supplements on the composition of fatty acids (FA), especially of trans11-C18:1 (vaccenic acid, TVA) and cis9, trans11-C18:2 conjugated linoleic acid (c9,t11-CLA), in bacterial (BF) and protozoal (PF) fractions of rumen fluid of sheep that was fractionated centrifugation. Four sheep were fed a diet consisting of meadow hay (960 g dry matter (DM)/day) and of barley grain (240 g DM/day), with sunflower oil (SO), rapeseed oil (RO) or linseed oil (LO) as supplements (60 g/day) in a Latin square design. The oils were used as they are rich in linoleic acid (SO, 533 g/kg of FA), oleic acid (RO, 605 g/kg of FA) and α-linolenic acid (LO, 504 g/kg of FA). Compared to the control (i.e., without oils), oil supplements influenced the concentration of unsaturated (UFA) and saturated fatty acids (SFA). In both BF and PF, the main fatty acids were palmitic and stearic, but PF contained a higher proportion of TVA and c9,t11-CLA than BF. In PF, TVA concentrations, ranked by oil supplement, were SO > RO > LO > Control (174, 150, 118, 74 g/kg of FA, respectively) and the c9,t11-CLA concentrations were RO > SO > LO > Control (59, 51, 27 and 15 g/kg of FA, respectively). Concentrations of c9,t11-CLA in PF were two to three times higher than in BF with all the oil supplements versus the control. Oil treatments impacted the c9,t11-CLA concentration in the fractions, especially SO and RO. The protozoal fraction contained a higher proportion of TVA and c9,t11-CLA than did the bacterial fraction, and dietary addition of SO, RO and LO resulted in a higher incorporation of TVA into both bacterial and protozoal microbial fractions, which probably positively affected TVA flow from the rumen.