The use of rumen material in culture media for rumen bacteria

Abstract

The suggestion that homologous rumen fluid in culture media results in better growth of rumen bacteria than that obtained with heterologous fluid was tested with samples of rumen material from cows and sheep, with the use of rumen fluid from cows and sheep, and two agar culture media. It is shown that the suggestion cannot be taken as applying in general. With rumen material from the cow, the use of either type of rumen fluid gave the same growth, whereas with rumen material from the sheep, growth was depressed by use of sheep rumen fluid.