The study on the feasibility of dietary supplementation with dimethyl silicone oil to prevent frothy rumen bloat in goats fed with high concentrate diets

The current study was conducted to investigate the feasibility of high concentration diet (HCD) supplementation with Dimethyl Silicone Oil (DSO) to prevent frothy rumen bloat in goats. The treatments were control group (group C, feeding HCD) and test group (group T, feeding HCD supplemented with 0.1%DSO). The results showed that compared with the group C, the ruminal pH value, Microbial Crude Protein content of group T was extremely significantly higher (p < 0.01), the levels of acetic acid and propionic acid were significantly (p < 0.05) and extremely significantly (p < 0.01) lower in group T, respectively. The foam production and foam strength of the rumen fluid in the group T was extremely significantly lower (p < 0.01), the viscosity was extremely significantly (p < 0.01) higher than those of group C. The total gastrointestinal apparent digestibility of various nutrients, the rumen microbial relative abundance at the phylum level and genus level were not significantly different (p > 0.05). The results indicated that the supplementation of 0.1% DSO in HCD can significantly eliminate foam of the rumen fluid, and didn't disturb the ruminal microorganisms, no negatively affect on digestibility of nutrients in goats, thereby has the application prospect of preventing frothy rumen bloat. SIMPLE SUMMARY The gas produced by rumen fermentation is wrapped in foam and cannot be discharged is the root cause of frothy bloat induced by a high concentration diet. In the present study, the feasibility of dietary supplementation with Dimethyl Silicone Oil (DSO) to prevent frothy bloat was preliminarily evaluated. The results indicated that DSO can significantly eliminate foam of the rumen fluid, and has not negatively effect on the ruminal microorganisms and the digestibility of nutrients in goats, thereby has the application prospect of preventing frothy bloat.