The rumen, the first of four chambers in the stom
ach of ruminants, is home to legions of microbes. Ac
cording to a Michigan State University web site, there
are more microbes in one cow’s rumen than there are
people on Earth.
These microbes break down cellulose, the chief part
of plant tissue, making it digestible to their host. This
lets herbivores live on forage grasses, hay and so on.
And it benefits people that like to eat meat. The mi
crobes indirectly turn hay into hamburger.
“A lot of people don’t realize that in reality, meat is
a product of food energy that otherwise wouldn’t be
usable by people,” Dehority said humans can’t
digest cellulose. “One qf the reasons we study rumen
microbes is to improve the utilization of feed by meat
producing animals.”
A project he is starting soon, for example, will see if
microbes from wild herbivores, such as wildebeest, im
palas, zebras and giraffes, can be introduced into Afri
can goats and sheep. Reason: Wild species thrive on
low-quality forage. Maybe livestock can, too, if they
have the same microbes.
Driving Dehority’s work is curiosity. He loves basic
research science that seeks simply to learn more
about something, not necessarily find an immediate
application. It has led him to non-cows like zebras and
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(Continued from Page 26)
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quokkas, plus elk, moose, llamas, pronghorns, musk
oxen, reindeer, and red, mule, axis, sika and white
tailed deer.
Why is basic research on rumen microbes or any
thing else important? Dehority likes to tell this
story: “In 1957, the Russians shot up Sputnik. The
United States immediately went to the scientific litera
ture in the library, built a satellite, and shot it up about
a year and a half later. Little if any new research was
needed. All the information was in the library in jour
nals, on the shelf.
“I put information on the library shelf,” he said.
“That’s how I explain what I do. Sometimes it has
direct application, and sometimes it doesn’t, and no
one knows when it will be useful.”
This is Dehority’s second such honor. The first was
last year, when Australian scientists found a new pro
tozoa species in eastern grey kangaroos. Citing the
Ohioan’s “considerable contributions” to their field,
they named it Dasytricha dehorityi.