Ergot alkaloids from endophyte-infected tall fescue decrease reticuloruminal epithelial blood flow and volatile fatty acid absorption from the washed reticulorumen.

An experiment was conducted to determine if ergot alkaloids affect blood flow to the absorptive surface of the rumen. Steers (n=8) were pair-fed alfalfa cubes and received ground endophyte-infected (Neotyphodium coenophialum) tall fescue (Lolium arundinaceum; E+) seed (0.015 mg ergovaline·kg BW(-1)·d(-1)) or endophyte-free tall fescue (E-) seed via the rumen cannula 2x daily for 7 d at thermoneutral (TN; 22°C) and heat stress (HS; 32°C) conditions. On d 8, the rumen was emptied and rinsed. A buffer containing VFA was incubated in the following sequence: control (CON), 15 µg ergovaline·kg BW(-1) (1×EXT) from a tall fescue seed extract, and 45 µg ergovaline·kg BW(-1) (3×EXT). For each buffer treatment there were two 30-min incubations: a 30-min incubation of a treatment buffer with no sampling followed by an incubation of an identical sampling buffer with the addition of Cr-EDTA and deuterium oxide (D2O). Epithelial blood flow was calculated as ruminal clearance of D2O corrected for influx of physiological water and liquid outflow. Feed intake decreased with dosing E+ seed at HS but not at thermoneutral conditions (TN; P<0.02). Dosing E+ seed decreased serum prolactin (P<0.005) at TN. At HS, prolactin decreased in both groups over the 8-d experiment (P<0.0001), but there was no difference in E+ and E- steers (P=0.33). There was a seed treatment×buffer treatment interaction at TN (P=0.038), indicating that E+ seed treatment decreased reticuloruminal epithelial blood flow at TN during the CON incubation, but the two groups of steers were not different during 1×EXT and 3×EXT (P>0.05). Inclusion of the extract in the buffer caused at least a 50% reduction in epithelial blood flow at TN (P=0.004), but there was no difference between 1×EXT and 3×EXT. There was a seed × buffer treatment interaction at HS (P=0.005), indicating that the reduction of blood flow induced by incubating the extract was larger for steers receiving E- seed than E+ seed. Volatile fatty acid flux was reduced during the 1×EXT and 3×EXT treatments (P<0.01). An additional experiment was conducted to determine the effect of time on blood flow and VFA flux because buffer sequence could not be randomized. Time either increased (P=0.05) or did not affect blood flow (P=0.18) or VFA flux (P>0.80), indicating that observed differences are due to the presence of ergot alkaloids in the rumen. A decrease in VFA absorption could contribute to the signs of fescue toxicosis including depressed growth and performance.

Wool production and blood supply to skin and other tissues in sheep.

Quantitative measurements of blood flow (BF) to skin and several other tissues were made using radioactive microspheres in conscious sheep. The sheep were from established flocks that had been selectively bred for greater (Fleece plus) or lesser (Fleece minus) wool production. The BF rate per unit area of wool-bearing skin was significantly greater in the Fleece plus (n = 9) than in the Fleece minus (n = 6) group, but the correlation between skin BF and the wool growth rate in individual animals was modest (r = .581). There was a strong, positive correlation (r = .813) between wool production and pineal BF. Other tissues that exhibited significant BF differences between the two groups included adrenal glands and fat, which were greater in Fleece plus sheep, and thyroid glands, reticulum, rumen, and extremity skin (non-wool-bearing), which were lesser in Fleece plus sheep.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

The choice of models relating tritiated water absorption to subepithelial blood flow in the rumen of sheep.

1. The blood flow to the ruminoreticulum of anaesthetized sheep was varied by changing the proportion of CO2 in the gas stirring solutions confined to this organ. 2. Clearance of tritiated water was thereby varied fourfold, from 10 to 44ml./min.100 g epithelium, with negligible net water movement. 4. Subepithelial blood flow, observed with radioactive microspheres using the reference organ technique, varied tenfold, from 20 to 200 ml./min.100 g epithelium. 4. The relation between tritiated water absorption and blood water flow was approximated by a hyperbolic model, but was appreciably better described using a higher order term in blood flow consistent with a countercurrent exchange of tritiated water between arterioles and venules. 5. The distribution of blood flow between different regions of the organ and between epithelium and muscle is described.

Partition of capillary blood flow in rumen, reticulum, and omasum of sheep.

Using radioactive microspheres, mucosal and muscular capillary blood flow have been measured in the rumen, reticulum, and omasum of conscious sheep. Total forestomach capillary blood flow (7.7 ml min(-1) kg body wt(-1)) was about 7% of cardiac output; 95% of the flow was in the mucosa and only 5% in muscle layers. Blood flow in the rumen was 6 times higher than in the reticulum and 4.4 times higher than in the omasum. Mucosal capillary flow per unit area of mucosal epithelium in the omassum (disregarding the increment in area due to papillae) was only one-third of that in the ventral rumen (long papillae); flow in the dorsal rumen (short papillae) was about half the flow in the ventral rumen. Mucosal flow seems to provide a convenient, indirect estimate of the increase in mucosal surface due to papillae and, thereby, of the functional forestomach surface area. Heat stimuli resulted in decreased capillary blood flow--primarily in mucosa during exposure to a warm environment and, also, in muscle during hypothalamic or spinal cord heating.