Effects of antibiotics (oxytetracycline, florfenicol or tulathromycin) on neonatal calves’ faecal microbial diversity

Oultram, Jo; Phipps, Erin C; Teixeira, A.G.V.; Foditsch, Carla; Bicalho, M.L.S.; Machado, V.S.; Oikonomou, Georgios

doi:10.1136/vr.103320

Cited by 43 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Moreover, antibiotics are not only used for the treatment of disease, but often as a preventative measure, with 54% of cow-calf operations administering antibiotics to prevent illness (Walker et al, 2012) and 57.5% of dairy farms feeding medicated MR (USDA-APHIS, 2007). Unfortunately, antibiotic exposure has been linked to gut microbial imbalance, known as dysbiosis, in preweaned calves (Oultram et al, 2015;Van Vleck Pereira et al, 2016;Malmuthuge and Guan, 2017) and can lead to a high number of antimicrobial-resistant bacterial phenotypes (Maynou et al, 2016). With this knowledge, the dairy research community and industry have turned to other strategies to prevent digestive disorders and support calf digestion and health and have begun investigating several Figure 1.…”

Section: Gut Health Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Invited Review: Nutritional regulation of gut function in dairy calves: From colostrum to weaning

Fischer

Villot

Niekerk

et al. 2019

Applied Animal Science

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publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active. ABSTRACTPurpose: Published literature regarding calf nutrition was reviewed to create an information base for the implementation of proper nutritional management to maximize health and productivity.Sources: The main source of data and information for this review was peer-reviewed literature.Synthesis: Feeding a sufficient volume of colostrum during the first hours of life is crucial to calf health and survival; however, less is known about transition milk feeding and the potential benefits of the myriad of bioactive compounds it contains. After feeding colostrum and transition milk, calves are susceptible to diarrhea when moved onto high amounts of milk, and antibiotic use is often necessary to decrease disease. Feeding an elevated plane of milk nutrition results in increased ADG and, in some studies, increased future milk production. Thus, this nutritional strategy is recommended; however, weaning calves from high volumes of milk represents massive changes in the structure and microbiology of the gastrointestinal tract.Conclusions and Applications: Colostrum and transition milk contain an abundance of bioactive molecules that can positively affect gut development and microbiota. There is significant potential for the use of novel feeding strategies and microbial-based products as alternatives to antibiotics. Calves fed an elevated plane of nutrition in the first month of life have greater productivity and growth. However, weaning should take place later in life. Moreover, applying a proper step-down feeding protocol is recommended, as it allows calves to intake and digest sufficient solid feed for growth and minimize distress at weaning.

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Section: Gut Health Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Invited Review: Nutritional regulation of gut function in dairy calves: From colostrum to weaning

Fischer

Villot

Niekerk

et al. 2019

Applied Animal Science

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“…Moreover, literature on the effect of each antibiotic class on the hindgut microbiota of preweaned dairy calves is scarce. As far as we know, research on this topic has focused on a few classes: macrolides [7,24], tetracycline [7], amphenicol [7], uoroquinolones [24], and polypeptides [25]. These studies, with the exception of that by Xie et al [25], all focused on the effects of a single injection of the antibiotic, which differs from the treatment plans and route of administration (oral) in our study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…Antibiotic-induced loss of diversity has already been reported in young beef cattle [6], as well as preweaned calves [7], and was often found to be associated with the depletion of bene cial bacteria and/or the increase of opportunistic pathogens [7,25]. Antibiotic-induced dysbiosis is also observed when preweaned calves are fed low doses of antibiotic molecules [27].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Because of the extensive use of antibiotics, combined with speci c dietary practices and intensive farming practices, maintaining a proper gut microbiota balance during calf development is a key challenge in the veal-calf industry. To our knowledge, only a few attempts have been made to investigate the effect of antibiotics on the gut microbiota composition of pre-weaned dairy calves in commercial farms [7,8], and no study has focused on calves reared in veal farms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Temporal dynamics of the fecal microbiota in veal calves in a 6-month field trial

Haenni

Nguyễn

Madec

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background Little is known about maturation of calves’ gut microbiome in veal farms, in which animals are confined under intensive-farming conditions and the administration of collective antibiotic treatment in feed is common. We conducted a field study on 45 calves starting seven days after their arrival in three veal farms. We collected monthly fecal samples over six months and performed 16S rRNA gene sequencing and quantitative PCR of Escherichia coli to follow the dynamics of their microbiota, including that of their commensal E. coli populations. We used mixed-effect models to characterize the dynamics of α-diversity indices and numbers of E. coli, and searched for an effect of collective antibiotic treatments on the estimated parameters. On two farms, we also searched for associations between recommended daily doses of milk powder and bacterial abundance. Results There was high heterogeneity between calves’ microbiota upon their arrival at the farms, followed by an increase in similarity, starting at the first month. From the second month, 16 genera were detected at each sampling in all calves, representing 67.5% (± 9.9) of their microbiota. Shannon diversity index showed a two-phase increase, an inflection occurring at the end of the first month. Calves receiving antibiotics had a lower intercept estimate for Shannon index (-0.17 CI95%[0.27; -0.06], p = 0.003) and a smaller number of E. coli/ gram of feces during the treatment and in the 15 days following it (-0.37 log10 (E. coli/g) CI95%[-0.66; -0.08], p = 0.01) than unexposed calves. There were moderate to strong positive associations between the dose of milk powder and the relative abundances of the genera Megasphaera, Enterococcus, Dialister and Mitsuokella, and the number of E. coli (rs ≥ 0.40; Bonferroni corrected p < 0.05).Conclusions This observational study shows early convergence of the developing microbiota between veal calves and associations between the dose of milk powder and members of their microbiota. It suggests that administration of collective antibiotic treatment results in a reduction of diversity and size of the E. coli population and highlights the need for additional work to fully understand the impact of antibiotic treatment in the veal industry.

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“…It is possible that the colonization of the bovine foetus occurs prior to parturition [8], but results are not de nitive and the existence of an intra-uterine or placental microbiome is controversial in humans [10][11][12][13][14]. Following initial colonization, the gastrointestinal microbiota continues to develop, in uenced primarily by environmental factors such as diet and exposure to antimicrobials [5,15,16], until it reaches a relatively steady state in adult animals [17,18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maternal influences on oral and faecal microbiota maturation in neonatal calves in beef and dairy production systems

Barden

Richards‐Rios

Ganda

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Abstract Background: The dam is considered an important source of microbes for the calf; consequently, the development of calf microbiota may vary with farming system due to differences between the contact the calf has with the dam. The objective of this study was to characterise the early changes in the composition of oral and faecal microbiota in beef and dairy calves (N = 10) using high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. The microbiota of calves was compared to selected anatomical niches on their dams which were likely to contribute to the vertical transfer of microbes. Results: A total of 14,125 amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) were identified and taxonomically assigned. The oral microbiota of calves and their dams were composed of more similar microbes after the first four weeks of life than immediately after calving. The faecal microbiota of four-week old calves was composed of microbes which were more similar to those found in the oral microbiota of calves and adult cows than the faecal microbiota of adult cows. Specific ASVs were identified in the oral microbiota of four-week old calves that were also present in cow niches at calving, whereas very few ASVs were present in the calf faecal microbiota at four-weeks of age were present in any adult cow niche at calving. These results were observed in both beef and dairy calves. Conclusions: We did not observe any marked differences in the maturation of the oral and faecal microbiota between beef or dairy calves, despite dairy calves having very limited contact with their dam. This suggests the development of gastrointestinal microbiota in calves may not be affected by continued vertical transmission of microbes from the dam. Although the calf faecal microbiota changed over the first four-weeks of life, it was composed of microbes which were phylogenetically closer to those in the oral microbiota of calves and adult cows than the faeces of adult cows. There was little evidence of persistent microbial seeding of the calf faeces from anatomical niches on the cow at calving in either beef or dairy animals.

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Effects of antibiotics (oxytetracycline, florfenicol or tulathromycin) on neonatal calves’ faecal microbial diversity

Cited by 43 publications

References 6 publications

Invited Review: Nutritional regulation of gut function in dairy calves: From colostrum to weaning

Invited Review: Nutritional regulation of gut function in dairy calves: From colostrum to weaning

Temporal dynamics of the fecal microbiota in veal calves in a 6-month field trial

Maternal influences on oral and faecal microbiota maturation in neonatal calves in beef and dairy production systems

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