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Nutritional supplementation of a multi-strains yeast fraction improves health and increases beneficial gut microbiota of pre-weaned dairy calves
Villot, C., Kowalczuk-Vasilev, E...
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Objectives
High morbidity and mortality rates of calves during pre-weaning period will dramatically impact the sustainability of the farm. The reduction of the prophylactic treatments in calves production has contributed to the development of new microbial-based solutions to improve gut heath and consequently production. The objective was to determine the effect on health of a multi-strains yeast fractions product (MSYF) introduced to the calves’ diet during the rearing period (5-65 day of life).
Materials and methods
Thirty Holstein calves born from late June to mid-November 2019, in a medium-size (500 milking cows) dairy farm in Poland were enrolled in the study. All calves received the colostrum from the dam within 2 h and 2.5 L of transition milk, 2 times a day until 5 days of age. At enrollment, 6 days-old calves, were individually housed and were offered daily 8 L of MR, divided in 2 equal meals, in buckets, at a dilution rate of 0.125kg /L, providing 4.6 Mcal metabolizable energy (ME) /kg of dry matter (DM) (21.9% crude protein and 18% fat). They had ad-libitum access to water and pelleted starter (3.55 Mcal ME/kg DM). Calves were randomly assigned in the two experimental groups, designated as supplemented (MSYF) and Control (C), stratified by dam’s parity, gender and initial BW. Supplemented calves received 0.8 g of a MSYF /kg of MR, diluted in the MR meals for the whole experiment. Fecal consistency (scores) was scored daily by the research team during the morning feeding using a 1 (firm) to 4 (watery) scale (Wenge et al., 2014). Two fecal samples were collected at time = 10 days and time = 60 days of the trial for each calf. Incidence of health disorders was recorded daily for each animal. Every abnormal health condition such as fever or bronchitis as well as every treatment (antibiotic, electrolyte therapy) was recorded.
A linear mixed model was performed to assess the impact of the supplementation on the different parameters measured. Calf was used as random effect, sex, group, and sex*group interaction were used as fixed effects and initial BW as a covariate. Statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS v.25 and RStudio.
Results
No calves of MSYF group experienced respiratory diseases during the trial whereas 50% of the non-supplemented calves had respiratory problems (P = 0.034). In addition, the number of diarrhea cases was lower for MYSF compared to Control group (2.2 vs. 0.9/calf respectively, P = 0.007) as well as the duration of the diarrhea case (5.6 vs. 2.9 days/calf respectively, P = 0.005). Consequently, a lower fecal score was reported all along the trial for MYSF compared to Control calves (1.6 vs 1.9 respectively, P = 0.002). Along with those observations, a lower number of calves received a therapeutic treatment in MSYF group compared to Control group (18.8 and 62.5% respectively, P = 0.034), and the average number of therapeutic treatment used for MSYF calves was lower compared to Control calves (0.3 vs 2.7/calf respectively, P = 0.005). Finally, less MSYF calves were supplemented with electrolytes compared to Control calves (37.5 vs. 81.3% respectively, P = 0.035). From a fecal microbiota standpoint, MYSF supplementation in neonate calves increased milk associated bacteria (Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus) and beneficial mucinolytic Akkermansia (stimulation of mucine production, and immune system) which might have improved milk metabolism compared to Control and optimize the nutrients supply from this feed.
Conclusions
The overall health of pre-weaned calves was significantly improved when they received daily a multistrains yeast fractions supplementation. Consequently, less therapeutic treatment was applied to the supplemented calves. This better health could be explained by an enrichment of beneficial gut microbiota of supplemented calves likely involved in a better valorization of the milk.
Keywords: health, prebiotic, yeast fraction, microbiota, calf.
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