Among the 61 bacterial genera, 14 were more than 1% of the total bacteria present in the rumen e.g. Prevotella (21.98), Bacteroides (11.91), Clostridium (6.14), Lactobacillus (2.75), Parabacteroides (2.51), Eubacterium (2.33), Ruminococcus (1.99), Butyrivibrio (1.14), Bacillus (1.72), Blautia (1.60), Porphyromonas (1.00), Pseudoflavonifractor (1.26), Streptococcus (1.71) and Kineococcus (1.14). The four bacterial groups commonly reported in the rumen in great abundance, were less than 1% of the total bacteria e.g. Enterococcus (0.94), Coprococcus (0.70), Treponema (0.59) and Fibrobacter (0.54) in the present …show more content…
With conventional techniques of isolation and characterization, seven species representing five genera of methanogens have been reported from the rumen of different animals, i.e. Methanobacterium formicicum, Methanobacterium bryanti, Methanobrevibacter ruminantium, Methanobrevibacter smithii, Methanomicrobium mobile, Methanosarcina barkeri and Methanoculleus olentangyi as compiled by Kamra (2005). On the other hand with studies on meta-transcriptomic, there were as high as 23 genera of methanogenic archaea present in the rumen of buffaloes (unpublished data). The methanogenic archaea are reported in the rumen of sheep and cattle in sufficiently large numbers varying from 107 to 109 cells/ml of rumen liquor depending upon the type of diet given to the animals, especially the fibre content in the ration. These archaea play a vital role in the rumen of scavenging molecular hydrogen generated during rumen