J. Anim Sci.
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J. Anim Sci. 1983. 56:1427-1433.
© 1983 American Society of Animal Science
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Effects of Breed, Diet and Sex on the Alkaline Phosphatase Activity in Walls of the Bovine Rumen and Abomasum1

J. P. Fay2, K. -J. Cheng and J. W. Costerton3

Agriculture Canada Research Station, Lethbridge, Alberta Canada T1J 4B1

Abstract

Alkaline phosphatase (APase) activity in tissue samples, with adherent bacteria, was measured from two sites in the rumen and from two sites in the abomasum of 57 yearling Angus and Hereford bulls and heifers fed a high or a low energy diet. In the rumen, APase activity was higher at the caudoventral blind sac than at the dorsal sac in animals of both breeds fed the high energy diet and in Angus bulls fed the low energy diet, but the reverse was observed in Hereford bulls fed the low-energy diet (P<.01). In the abomasum, APase levels were higher for bulls than heifers (P<.01) and higher at the fundic than at the pyloric region (P<.01). Morphological studies also showed that rumen samples from animals fed a high energy diet exhibited a more widely distributed APase activity and an increase in the digestive recycling of epithelial cells that produced some "pitting" of the tissue. The higher APase activity of the epithelial tissue of animals fed the high energy diet may be explained by the greater rate of cell death and renewal indicated by the higher mitotic index reported by other researchers who have studied the cell cycle of the rumen epithelium in ruminants fed high and low energy diets.

Footnotes

1 The help with statistical analysis given by G. C. Kozub and the photographic work of Sheila Costerton is appreciated, as is the financial support of the Alberta Agricultural Research Trust.

2 Fellow of the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Técnicas de la República Argentina.

3 Dept. of Biol., Univ. of Calgary






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