ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microorganisms in Vertebrate Digestive Systems
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1573040
This article is part of the Research TopicUnravelling the Unknown of the Rumen Microbiome: Implications for Animal Health, Productivity, and BeyondView all 28 articles
Saline pasture improve meat quality in Qinghai Tibetan sheep through changes in the rumen microbiota
Provisionally accepted
Yujiao Jia
Lijuan Han*Shengzhen Hou
LinSheng GuiZhenzhen YuanShengnan SunZhiyou WangBaochun Yang
Chao Yang- College of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, Qinghai University, Xining, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Previous research has shown that grazing Tibetan sheep on saline pasture was affected by the pasture's metabolites. To clarify the effects of natural saline pasture on the meat quality of Tibetan sheep, targeted and non-targeted metabolomics were used to comprehensively analyze both pasture and meat quality, metabolites. Additionally, 16S rDNA sequencing was employed to analyze the rumen microbial community structure of Tibetan sheep. The results showed significant interactions between metabolism and both forage and meat quality, as well as with rumen microorganisms. Saline pasture significantly outperformed non-saline pasture in quality and secondary metabolite content. Furthermore, saline pasture with high protein and amino acid contents but low fiber levels significantly influenced the abundance of specific rumen microorganisms, leading to colour retention and increased amino acid concentrations in the meat. These findings lay the groundwork for studying how various natural pastures affect Tibetan sheep meat quality.
Keywords: Tibetan sheep, Saline -alkali stress, forage quality, meat quality, Metabolomics, Rumen microorganism
Received: 08 Feb 2025; Accepted: 14 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jia, Han, Hou, Gui, Yuan, Sun, Wang, Yang and Yang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Lijuan Han, College of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, Qinghai University, Xining, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.