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Appl Environ Microbiol. 1961 September; 9(5): 405-409

Physiological Studies of the Rumen Protozoan Ophryoscolex caudatus Eberlein¹

Animal Husbandry Research Division, Agriculture Research Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Maryland
Department of Microbiology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland

ABSTRACT

The rumen ciliate Ophryoscolex caudatus fermented starch with the production of acetic, butyric, and lactic acids plus CO₂ and H₂. Cellulose was not significantly metabolized although pectin was rapidly attacked in the Warburg apparatus. The protein sources, cottonseed, soybean, and linseed oil meals, and the amino acids, DL-alanine, DL-valine, and DL-leucine, were utilized by the protozoan, whereas ammonia was demonstrated as an end product of nitrogenous metabolism. Methods for the separation of O. caudatus from mixed rumen contents are described.

¹ Presented in part at the 60th general meeting of the Society of American Bacteriologists, Philadelphia, Pa. May 1-5, 1960.