About this Research Topic

Background

The shortage of feed resources because of the rising demand for animal products is one of the grand challenges worldwide. At the moment, it's important to address the challenges of "food waste management" and "sustainable livestock". Unconventional feeds (including Moringa oleifera Lam., Caragana, and others) or byproducts (including wheat straw, rice straw, Chinese cabbage residue, and others) could alleviate the food competition between humans and animals. The feed constitutes a major input during the animal production process, and the feeding value of unconventional feeds varies highly depending on the source, variety, and processing. It is critical to characterize the feed quality and explore its impact on livestock products. Therefore, this topic will share recent knowledge about the ensiling strategy to produce unconventional feeds during the current interest in sustainable livestock production systems. The alternative microbial species and complex fermentative starter cultures with higher numbers of microorganisms to improve the fermentation quality and regulate the microbial community of unconventional feed will also be collected.

This Research Topic aims to collect manuscripts on the latest use of new potential microbial additives (such as Acetobacter, Bacillus, lactic acid bacteria, and others) in fermented diets for illustrating and improving the value of fermented unconventional feeds. Additionally, the effects of microbial additives on the microbial community structure and metabolites’ function of fermented unconventional feeds should be validated. The microbiome and metabolome data, if used, should be related to additives stimulating ensiling performance. To characterize the ensiling mechanism, the function of the dominant microorganisms or the added potential inoculants will also be analyzed by using whole genome sequencing, metagenome, or other methods. This Research Topic will also cover the mechanisms and impacts of fermented unconventional feeds on rumen fermentation, meat quality, immune function, etc.

We welcome submissions including original research articles and reviews that contribute innovative knowledge to the following sub-topics but are not limited to:
• Analyzing the potential microbial additives (such as Acetobacter, Bacillus, lactic acid bacteria, and others) on improving the fermentation quality of unconventional feeds and characterizing the mechanisms of the microbial additives on the fermentation processes by the whole genome sequencing or metagenome or other techniques.
• New fermentation biotechnologies: mixed multispecies starters, co-inoculations, and sequential microbial inoculations on unconventional feeds.
• Microbiome/Metabolome techniques to analyze the impact of microbial communities in fermented unconventional feeds.
• Evaluating the effects of fermented unconventional feeds on the rumen fermentation, livestock production, and others of ruminants.

Please note that Frontiers in Microbiology does not welcome descriptive research with only amplicon or metagenome data. Manuscripts should be hypothesis-driven and multi-validated.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Editorial
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Editorial
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: animal performance, ruminant feeding, unconventional feeds, by-products, ensiling performance, sustainability

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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