Effects of Probiotics Supplementation in Daily Milk Intake of Newborn Calves on Body Weight Gain, Body Height, Diarrhea Occurrence and Health Condition

Abstract

The effects of probiotic administration were studied in an experiment, using 120 newborn calves. Calves were randomly assigned to two experimental groups (sixty calves for each group) and probiotic (0.25 g h(-1) day(-1)) was added in their daily milk intake until 90 days of age. After the first week, all calves (including control group) received starter ration containing 21.0% crude protein and 3.0% crude fat. Body weight gain, body height and general health condition of all calves were observed at day 30, 60 and 90. Also condition of feces was examined daily and the occurrence of diarrhea was recorded throughout the experiment. Mean values of weight gain during three successive months for treatment and control groups were 57.52 and 50.58 kg, respectively. Body weight gained was not significantly different for first and second mo between treatment and control groups (16.9 and 33.87 vs. 14.49 and 33.07 for fist and second months in treatment and control groups, respectively). However, these values were significantly different (p < 0.001) between treatment (57.52) and control (50.58) groups third months of age. Diarrhea was observed in 35 calves of control group, which was higher than 11 cases in calves treated with probiotic (p < 0.001). The body height values of control and treatment groups in three successive months were 5.49, 10.82 and 15.00 cm for control and 5.44, 9.25 and 15.75 cm for treatment groups in first, second and third mo, respectively, which showed no significant difference between two groups during this study. The results of this study indicated that present probiotic compound have beneficial effects, especially on the third month of age in rearing calves.