Effect of acidified milk feeding on the intake, average daily gain and fecal microbiological diversity of Holstein dairy calves

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the effect of feeding acidified milk on the growth and fecal microbial diversity of dairy calves.

METHODS

Twenty healthy 3-day-old female Holstein calves with similar body weights were selected and randomly divided into two groups. One group was fed pasteurized milk (PM, Control), while the other was fed acidified milk (AM) ad libitum until weaned (day 60). The experiment lasted until day 180.

RESULTS

There was no difference in the nutritional components between PM and AM. The numbers of Escherichia coli and total bacteria in AM were lower than in PM. At 31 to 40 and 41 to 50 days of age, the milk intake of calves fed AM was higher than that of calves fed PM (p<0.05), and the solid feed intake of calves fed AM was higher than that of calves fed PM at 61 to 90 days (p<0.05). The average daily gain of calves fed AM was also higher than that of calves fed PM at 31 to 60, 61 to 180, and 7 to 180 days (p<0.05). The calves fed AM tended to have a lower diarrhea rate than those fed PM (p = 0.059). Bacteroides had the highest abundance in the feces of calves fed AM on day 50, while Ruminococcaceae_UCG_005 had the highest abundance in the feces of calves fed AM on day 90 and calves fed PM on days 50 and 90. At the taxonomic level, the linear discriminant analysis scores of 27 microorganisms in the feces of calves fed AM and PM on days 50 and 90 were higher than 4.0.

CONCLUSION

Feeding AM increased calf average daily gain and affected fecal bacterial diversity.

Performance of calves fed fermented mastitic milk, colostrum, and fresh whole milk

Weight gains, milk intake, and health of calves fed fermented mastitic milk from cows treated and not treated with antibiotics were compared with those of calves fed fermented colostrum or fresh normal milk at two intakes. Calves fed fermented mastitic milk from cows treated with antibiotics, not treated with antibiotics, fermented colostrum (diluted 1:1 with water), and fresh normal milk gained .13, .14, .13, and .10 kg/day in trial 1 fed at 8% of body weight daily, and .09, .11, .18, and .13 dg/day in trial 2 fed at 10% of body weight daily from birth through 30 days of age. All calves were housed in individual pens during milk feeding. Feeding milk at 10% in trial 2 did not improve gains over those in trial 1. Incidence of health disorders and mastitis in first lactation of cows fed fermented mastitic milk as calves was not different from those of cows fed fresh normal milk or fermented colostrum. Fermented mastitic milk appears to be an economical and safe feed for rearing calves when calves are housed individually during milk feeding.

Symposium: disease prevention in calves. Factors affecting susceptibility of calves to disease

Enteric and respiratory disorders are the main hazards to successful calf rearing. The many interrelated factors in the etiology of these disorders are reviewed, and an attempt has been to classify the factors into those of a microbiological, immunological, nutritional, genetic, physical, or psychological nature. No one would dispute that enteric and respiratory disorders are the two main hazards to calf health, but many would argue about the relative importance of specific pathogens and other predisposing factors in the etiology of these disorders.

Chemical changes in bovine colostrum preserved with formalin or by fermentation

Fresh bovine colstrum from second and third milkings postpartum was inoculated with either a yogurt culture or Streptococcus lactis or preserved with .1% formalin in two separate experiments. There was a rapid decrease in pH of the fermented samples which corresponded to decreased lactose concentrations and increased lactate and titratable acidity. Titratable acidity in the fermented colostrums increased further after 10 days from the production of volatile fatty acids, but pH did not decrease. The pH of the yogurt fermentations in Experiment 2 decreased to 3.8, and the continued increase in titratable acidity was from lactic acid rather than volatile fatty acids. The lowest pH of all other fermentations was 4.1. The extent of metabolism of the formalin-preserved colostrum was much less than for the colostrum fermented by either culture.

Influence of feeding fermented colostrum and Lactobacillus acidophilus on fecal flora of dairy calves

Twenty Holstein calves were assigned alternately at birth to diets of 1) fermented colostrum, 2) colostrum treated with 1% propionic acid, 3) whole milk, or 4) whole milk treated with Lactobacillus acidophilus (frozen concentrate culture) at 5 x 10(8) organisms per litter. Diets were fed once daily for 3 wk at 10% of birth weight as the sole source of nutritients. Fecal samples were collected at 0, 7, 14, and 21 days of age and analyzed for coliform and lactobacilli numbers. Fermented colostrum diets did not alter coliform counts in feces of healthy calves. Fecal coliform counts of calves fed L. acidophilus decreased with time. Average fecal lactobacilli counts were lower for the colostrum diets than milk diets. The apparent lowered incidence of scours frequently reported in calves fed fermented colostrum diets was not reflected in major changes in fecal microflora under the conditions of this study.