Effect of Olive Cake and Cactus Cladodes Incorporation in Goat Kids’ Diet on the Rumen Microbial Community Profile and Meat Fatty Acid Composition

Abstract

The olive cake (OC) and the cactus cladodes (CC) are two alternative feed resources widely available in the southern Mediterranean region that could be used in ruminants’ diet. Their impact on the rumen bacterial ecosystem is unknown. This work aims to evaluate their effects on the microbial community and meat fatty acids of goat’s kids. Forty-four goat kids were divided into four groups receiving diets with conventional concentrate, or 35% OC, or 30% CC, or 15% OC, and 15% CC. After 3 months, these animals were slaughtered, and the rumen liquor and longissimus dorsi and semimembranosus muscles samples were collected. Animals receiving a control diet had rumen liquor with high acidity than test groups (p < 0.001). Test rumen liquor was more adapted to digest efficiently their matching diet than control liquor (p < 0.05). These feedstuffs did not affect rumen bacteria abundance and alpha diversity (richness, evenness, and reciprocal Simpson indexes), and these results were confirmed by beta-diversity tests (NMDS plot, HOMOVA, PERMANOVA). The test diets slightly affected the individual fatty acids of meat (p < 0.05) without effect on fatty acids summaries, indexes, and ratios. Thus, these alternative feed resources could take place in goat kids’ diet to diversify their feed and to reduce feed costs.