Effect of sodium butyrate, phytogenic compounds and egg yolk antibodies supplementation in calf milk replacer containing probiotic bacteria on farms feeding a mixture of surplus colostrum and transition milk to calves in their first days of life

Abstract

The same study methodology and treatments were used on two different farms and in two consecutive studies on each farm to determine whether supplementation with sodium butyrate (SB), phytogenic compounds (PC), and egg yolk antibodies (EY) in milk replacer (MR) containing probiotic bacteria would affect the body weight (BW), average daily gain (ADG), feed efficiency (FE), fecal score (FS), and health of calves. On both farms, calves were fed a mixture of surplus colostrum, transition milk and whole milk for the first 9 days of life. In Stage 1, 100 calves on Farm A (Study 1A) and 96 calves on Farm B (Study 1B) were allocated to one of four treatments: 1) MR (CTRL); 2) MR with SB (3.1 g/day/calf); 3) MR with PC (0.45 g/day/calf); and 4) MR with EY (2.7 g/day/calf). In Stage 2, 96 calves on Farm A (Study 2A) and the same number on Farm B (Study 2B) were allocated to one of four treatments: 1) MR (CTRL); 2) MR with PC; 3) MR with EY; and 4) MR with PC and EY (PCEY). The feed additives used in Stage 2 were chosen based on the results of Stage 1. The calves were allocated to studies on day 10 of life and their growth performance and health parameters were monitored for 50 days. From the first day of the study, the calves were fed daily 6 L of MR and starter mixture ad libitum. The MR (21% crude protein and 18% fat) used in the studies contained Bacillus licheniformis and Bacillus subtilis (1.3 × 106 CFU/g), and Enterococcus faecium (1.2 × 106 CFU/g). In Study 1A, SB increased FS compared to CTRL. In Study 1B, SB and EY tended to decrease the ADG of calves between day 1 and 20 of the study, EY increased the ADG of calves between day 21 and 50 of the study, PC decreased the FS between day 1 and 20 of the study and in the whole study period, and increased FE compared to CTRL. Moreover, PC calves had fewer days with diarrhea and a lower likelihood of developing diarrhea compared to CTRL calves. In Study 2A, final BW, ADG and starter intake were or tended to be the greatest for PC calves and EY calves, intermediate for CTRL calves, and the lowest for PCEY calves. In Study 2B, PC increased the ADG of calves between day 1 and 20 of the study and tended to improve FE. In summary, SB supplementation in MR containing probiotic bacteria had no or a negative impact on the performance of calves, PC supplementation improved the performance of calves at some but not all stages of rearing, whereas EY supplementation had no substantial impact. Consumption of a mixture of colostrum, transition milk and whole milk by calves in the first days of life has to be taken into account when interpreting those results. The impact of tested feed additives was inconsistent between the farms on which the studies were conducted as well as between studies conducted on the same farm.