Sheep, rumen

The ability to identify and quantify cyanobacterial toxins in animal and human clinical material following (suspected) intoxications or illnesses associated with contact with toxic cyanobacteria is an increasing requirement. The recoveries of anatoxin-a from animal stomach material and of microcystins from sheep rumen contents are relatively straightforward. However, the recovery of microcystin from liver and tissue samples cannot be expected to be complete without the application of proteolytic digestion and extraction procedures. This is likely because microcystins bind covalently to a cysteine residue in protein phosphatase. Unless an effective procedure is applied for the extraction of covalently bound microcystins (and nodiilarins), then a negative result in analysis cannot be taken to indicate the absence of toxins in clinical specimens. Furthermore, any positive result may be an underestimate of the true amount of microcystin in the material and would only represent free toxin, not bound to the protein phosphatases. Optimized procedures for the extraction of bound microcystins and nodiilarins from organ and tissue samples are needed. 

Matteuzzi, D. Crociani, F. Cellulosolytic sporogenous bacteria isolated from sheep rumen. Anna . Microbiol. Enzimol. 1967,17,181-190. 

Production of HA from nitrate as the sole nitrogen source by unknown soil bacteria was demonstrated as early as 1928 and 1931, and was confirmed in 1932 by the use of known pure bacterial cultures. Later, HA was suggested to be an intermediate in the in vitro reduction of nitrate by sheep rumen bacteria . 

Protozoa none in Trichomonas vaginalis,78 and in oligotrich and holotrich ciliates from sheep-rumen liquor.89... 

Bacteria present in certain strains of Escherichia coli, Streptococcus and Staphylococcus, 91-99 but none in others also present in certain Corynebacteria01 00 07 and in sheep-rumen micro-organisms.100101... 

The only non-mammalian /8-glucuronidase that has been subjected to systematic purification is the enzyme from sheep-rumen microorganisms. After repeated ammonium sulfate fractionation, Marsh101 obtained a colorless preparation with a specific activity of 1,900 (400-fold purification and 2% recovery). The final product gave a linear, specific-property, solubility test from which a figure of 2,200 was derived for the ultimate specific activity of the enzyme, but it was considered that the enzyme may have formed a solid solution with inactive protein. 

Workers in Australia, where chronic liver disease of sheep has been related to pyrrolizidine alkaloid intake (173), have isolated microorganisms from sheep rumen capable of reductive cleavage of the side-chain ester function of heliotrine (161), supinine (163), heleurine (164), and europine (165) (165,166). In the earlier report (765), a small gram-negative coccus... 

Sheep rumen contents are known to detoxify pyrrolizidine alkaloids. A new, obligate anaerobe, Peptococcus heliotrinreductans, has been identified from the rumen.74 It is a Gram-positive coccus, and reduces 1,2-dehydropyrrolizidines, using hydrogen gas or formate as hydrogen donors. 

Coleman G. S. (1960) A sulfate-reducing bacterium from the sheep rumen. J. Gen. Microbiol. 22, 423-436. 

Production in Continuous Cultures of Rumen Organisms and in a Sheep Rumen, App/. Microbiol (1968) 16, 1955-1956. 

Gerson, T., John, A., and King, A.S.D. 1985. The effects of dietary starch and fibre on the in vitro rates of lipolysis and hydrogenation by sheep rumen digesta. J. Agric. Sci. Camb. 105, 27-30. 

Cellulose and pectin extracts from soybean hulls and endosperm were characterized in terms of their rate of degradation in the presence of sheep rumen fluid.13313C CPMAS NMR was used to study the ultrastructural aspects of ultra-thin cellulose microfibrils extracted from sugar beet pulp during the purification procedure. It was found that crystallinity increases as the purification proceeds. A crystallite size of 4 nm was derived from the NMR results, in good agreement with the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations.134... 

A new procedure described for the determination of cellulase activity is based on incubation of the enzyme with finely divided cellulose at pH 6.9 and determination of the D-glucose and cellobiose liberated as their trimethylsilyl derivatives by g.l.c. The method, although generally applicable, was specifically developed for measurement of cellulase activity in mixed enzyme preparations from sheep rumen contents the coefficient of variation of the assay was 2.4-4.5%. 

In 1959, Horiguchi and Kandatsu discovered 2-aminoethanephosphonic acid (AEP) in ciliated sheep rumen protozoa [1], the simplest natural aminophosphonate. This acid is present in some organisms in remarkably high amounts. Freshly laid eggs contain over 95% of total phosphorus in the phosphonate form, principally as AEP [2]. 

Pol A, Demeyer DI (1988) Fermentation of methanol in the sheep rumen. Appl Environ Microbiol 54 832-834... 

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