Dietary Supplementation with Sugar Beet Fructooligosaccharides and Garlic Residues Promotes Growth of Beneficial Bacteria and Increases Weight Gain in Neonatal Lambs.

Narciso M Quijada,Raúl Bodas,David Rodríguez-Lázaro,Jose M Lorenzo,Marta Hernández,Stephan Schmitz-Esser

doi:10.3390/biom10081179

Abstract

The proper development of the early gastrointestinal tract (GIT) microbiota is critical for newborn ruminants. This microbiota is susceptible to modification by diverse external factors (such as diet) that can lead to long-lasting results when occurring in young ruminants. Dietary supplementation with prebiotics, ingredients nondigestible and nonabsorbable by the host that stimulate the growth of beneficial GIT bacteria, has been applied worldwide as a potential approach in order to improve ruminant health and production yields. However, how prebiotics affect the GIT microbiota during ruminants’ early life is still poorly understood. We investigated the effect of milk supplementation with a combination of two well-known prebiotics, fructooligosaccharides (FOS) from sugar beet and garlic residues (all together named as “additive”), exerted on preweaned lamb growth and the composition of their fecal microbiota, by using 16S rRNA gene amplicon high-throughput sequencing. The results showed a significant increase in the mean daily weight gain of lambs fed with the additive. Lamb fecal microbiota was also influenced by the additive intake, as additive-diet lambs showed lower bacterial diversity and were significantly more abundant in Bifidobacterium, Enterococcus, Lactobacillus and Veillonella. These bacteria have been previously reported to confer beneficial properties to the ruminant, including promotion of growth and health status, and our results showed that they were strongly linked to the additive intake and the increased weight gain of lambs. This study points out the combination of FOS from sugar beet and garlic residues as a potential prebiotic to be used in young ruminants’ nutrition in order to improve production yields.

Highlights

Sheep and lamb farming is a practice widespread worldwide due to the appreciated value of the associated products and great efforts are continuously made to select the best breeds and to improve production yields and performance [1]
Unlike mature ruminants, whose gastrointestinal tract (GIT) microbiota is relatively stable to changes, several studies highlighted the effect of diet in shaping the GIT microbiome of lambs during their early life [4,22,23,24,25,26]
We aimed to investigate the effects of preweaned lamb dietary supplementation with a combination of sugar beet FOS and garlic residues on lamb growth and the composition of their GIT microbiota

Summary

Introduction

Sheep and lamb farming is a practice widespread worldwide due to the appreciated value of the associated products (meat, milk and wool) and great efforts are continuously made to select the best breeds and to improve production yields and performance [1]. Whereas the rumen microbiota, which is the main one responsible for the plant cell-wall degradation, has been well characterized, other segments of the ruminant GIT are still poorly known [5,6,7,8]. Unlike mature ruminants, whose GIT microbiota is relatively stable to changes, several studies highlighted the effect of diet in shaping the GIT microbiome of lambs during their early life [4,22,23,24,25,26]. There is evidence that a window exists during the first weeks of life in which the GIT microbiota is more susceptible to changes and where manipulation through diet could lead to long-lasting results [22,27,28]

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