Ruminal Degradation of Taurine and Its Effects on Rumen Fermentation In Vitro
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear authors!
The article submitted for review is devoted to an important topic - ruminal degradation of taurine and its effects on rumen fermentation in vitro.
The article has all the necessary sections and corresponds to the profile, goals and objectives of the journal.
I would like to note only a small remark on the data analysis in the article.
Table 5 shows the effect of taurine on in vitro rumen fermentation parameters. Of particular interest is the effect of taurine on the ratio of individual VFAs. Could we receive a more detailed description of this effect?
At the discussion part of the article results indicated that taurine inhibited the ruminal fermentation of feed carbohydrates (Line 215-216). Is it possible to present any reports of other authors about the described action of taurine?
I recommend the article for publication.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Reviewer 1:
Point 1: The paper is interesting. The authors used adequate methodologies and very well depicted and discussed their results. The conlusions are exaustive. In my opinion the paper could be publisched in present form.
Response 1: Thank you!
Reviewer 2 Report
The paper is interesting. The authors used adequate methodologies and very well depicted and discussed their results. The conlusions are exaustive. In my opinion the paper could be publisched in present form.
Author Response
Point 1: Table 5 shows the effect of taurine on in vitro rumen fermentation parameters. Of particular interest is the effect of taurine on the ratio of individual VFAs. Could we receive a more detailed description of this effect?
Response 1: Thanks for your valuable comments. The results in Table 5 showed that taurine linearly decreased the total VFAs concentration but it did not affect the ratio of individual VFAs. The reason for the results could be that taurine inhibited most of ruminal microorganisms related to carbohydrate fermentation. However, the hypothesis needs to be clarified through investigating the effects of taurine on the ruminal microbiota in the future. Please see the revisions in Lines 220-224 in the revised manuscript.
Point 2: At the discussion part of the article results indicated that taurine inhibited the ruminal fermentation of feed carbohydrates (Line 215-216). Is it possible to present any reports of other authors about the described action of taurine?
Response 2: Thanks for your valuable comments and suggestions. We are sorry that no references have been available on the effect of taurine on rumen VFAs. Therefore, further research is necessary to investigate the mechanism of the impact of taurine on ruminal VFAs.
Other points:
- The whole manuscript has been carefully checked and revised
- All revisions are highlighted in red for your convenience to check.
