95 Analysis Of The Gastrointestinal Tract-Associated Microbiome Of Calves Supplemented During The Suckling Phase.
Year: 2018
Type: conference-abstract
Abstract: We evaluated the effect of creep feeding supplementation with and without the enzyme xylanase on the ruminal microbiome composition of calves. Forty-two cow-calf pairs were divided into 3 groups: 1) Calves were not supplemented (NO FEED); 2) Calves were creep fed with a corn-soybean meal-based feed (PLAIN FEED); or 3) Calves received the same supplement from PLAIN FEED, but with the addition of the enzyme xylanase at 13,800 FXU/kg creep feed DM (ENZYME FEED). After 14 wk of feeding, the ruminal contents of 25 male calves were collected by esophageal tube and all animals in the study were weaned, commingled, and placed in a common post-weaning diet for 4 wk. After 28 d, ruminal fluid was again collected from the same 25 calves. All ruminal samples underwent DNA extraction and were subjected to 16S rRNA gene paired-end sequencing. For samples collected on the calves’ weaning day, phylogenetic alpha diversity was lower (P ≤ 0.02) in PLAIN FEED and ENZYME FEED, compared to NO FEED, however, this difference disappeared (P ≥ 0.23) from samples collected 4 wk post-weaning. Additionally, regardless of treatment, the phyla Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes comprised 75 to 80% of the total bacterial abundance for both collection days. At the genus level, of the genera with relative abundances 3 1%, an increase caused by supplementation (P ≤ 0.02) was observed for Prevotella, and a decrease for Treponema, and a collection day effect (P < 0.01) was observed for Prevotella, Ruminococcus, Anaeroplasma, and Succiniclasticum. Moreover, Prevotella abundance was greatest (P = 0.02) in ENZYME FEED. Overall, our results show that creep feeding supplementation reduced ruminal microbial diversity, however, comingling calves and offering them a common diet for a period of 4 wk allowed differences in microbial diversity to be mitigated.
Source: Journal of Animal Science
Language: English
Subfield: Agronomy and Crop Science
Domain: Life Sciences
SDG: Zero hunger
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2915717164