| Neonatal calf diarrhea (NCD) is one of the common causes of illness and death in the pre-weaning calves in farms. Different methods to treat the diarrhea have been used including antibiotics, although it is forbidden now to use them. Probiotics are live microbial feed supplements which helpfully improve intestinal microbial balance in intestine and provide an alternative strategy to the traditional practice of the antibiotic usage. Throughout this study, the beneficial effects of probiotics were observed on animals including growth enhancement and disease prevention. Sixty-five newly born buffalo calves of both sexes aged from 3 days to 1 month, were fed on Milk Replacer in a private farm in Sharkia governorate were assessed to determine the effect of probiotic on growth performance, blood parameters and the prophylaxis of calf diarrhea in them. They were divided to 2 groups; Control group included 30 healthy calves fed on Milk Replacer without addition of probiotic and Probiotic group included 35 apparently healthy calves fed on Milk Replacer with addition of probiotic. Results revealed that calves initial body weight in the control group and in the probiotic group were 40.60 kg and 40.39 kg from the experiment start reaching 49.60 kg and 55.64 kg respectively at its end. Moreover, Probiotic reduced the incidence of diarrhea and was effective after two weeks of application may be as a result of an improved intestinal bacterial flora in calves supplemented with probiotics. Moreover, probiotic had no significant effect on any of the hematological and biochemical traits measured (P > 0.05). Usage of probiotics improves health condition of neonatal calves. Adding probiotic to milk replacer can be used to increase the daily weight gain, feed conversion efficiency and reduce the incidence of diarrhea.
In Europe from 2006 and nowadays all over the world, there are restrictions about the addition of antibiotics to calves' food in order to minimize the rates of bacterial resistance to antibiotics. Thus, this study was conducted to determine the anti-diarrheal effect of probiotic supplementation in neonatal buffalo calves at a dose of 10 g for each animal once daily for three weeks comparing with non-supplemented control group that fed only on milk replacer. Fecal score, selective hematological and biochemical studies were analyzed to evaluate the effect of probiotics on the frequency of diarrhea caused by Escherichia coli (E. coli) and the Probability of having any side effects on blood picture and liver function. Results revealed that the probiotics mixture used at this study had no significant changes at the values of red and white blood cells, liver enzymes, glucose and electrolytes. however, a significant decrease in the count of fecal E. coli wihout diarrhea was observed all over the experimental periods compared to the non-supplemented animals. It could be concluded that the addition of probiotics to calves food at the period before weaning is safe and achieving antidiarreal and antimicrobial benefits.
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