Source of supplemental dietary copper, zinc, and manganese affects fecal microbial relative abundance in lactating dairy cows

Abstract

Appropriate trace mineral supplementation can improve immune response and hoof health in cattle and at much higher rates of supplementation to swine and poultry can alter microbial colonization of the gut, resulting in improved gut health. Diet can influence fecal microbial excretion in cattle, and the fecal microbiome may serve as a means for assessing gastrointestinal microbial changes. We hypothesized that feeding diets that differed in source of supplemental Cu, Zn, or Mn would alter the relative abundance of fecal microbes in lactating dairy cattle and that organic Zn would have the greatest effect. Twenty-four cows were fed diets devoid of supplemental Cu, Zn, and Mn for a 16-d preliminary phase (basal diet provided 9, 29, and 32 mg/kg of Cu, Zn, and Mn, respectively), and then were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 treatment diets (n = 8 cows/treatment): one group of cows was fed supplemental Cu, Zn, and Mn from sulfate minerals; the second group was fed glycinate minerals; and the third group was fed Cu and Mn sulfate with glycinate Zn. Assayed total dietary concentrations were approximately 21, 73, and 72 mg/kg for Cu, Zn, and Mn, respectively. Milk production (averaged 38.8 kg/d), DMI (averaged 25.8 kg/d), and milk components were not affected by treatment. Fecal DNA was extracted, amplified using a universal primer targeting the V4-V5 hypervariable region of the 16S rRNA gene, and sequenced to compare microbial community composition between treatments. Relative abundances of Treponema species-level operational taxonomic units (OTU) were less for animals fed Cu and Mn sulfate with glycinate Zn compared with sulfates alone, but were similar to animals fed glycinate mineral sources. Relative abundances for exclusive glycinate mineral and sulfate mineral treatments were similar. Treponema OTU and cultured representatives are often associated with bovine digital dermatitis. These data may provide an additional link between organic Zn supplementation and improved hoof health. To our knowledge this is the first report of a dietary treatment decreasing the relative abundance of Treponema OTU in cattle feces; however, the potential benefits of this response on overall animal health and the mechanism for the observed responses are unknown and warrant further investigation.

Impact of Nutrients on the Hoof Health in Cattle

“…The availability of trace minerals is influenced by factors, such as iron (Fe), sulfur (S), calcium (Ca), and toxic metal levels in the feed ration [ 113 ]. Appropriate mineral supplements can improve the immune response and hoof health of cattle [ 114 , 115 ].…”

“…Zinc is crucial for hoof formation, providing catalytic, structural, and regulatory functions in keratinization [ 4 , 27 ], playing a considerable role in the creation of structural keratin proteins [ 27 , 42 , 73 , 103 , 115 ] and regulating calmodulin and responsible for the transfer of calcium ions to the cytosol of keratinocytes, which is relevant in the last stage of keratinocyte development [ 19 , 93 ]. Zinc is significant for maintaining the health and integrity of the skin due to its role in cell repair and replacement and it plays a crucial role in wound healing [ 65 , 73 , 103 , 114 , 115 , 118 ]. Feeding a balanced mineral mixture with the addition of zinc is suitable for preventing interdigital necrotic inflammation [ 84 ].…”

“…Singh et al [ 19 ] successfully used zinc together with biotin in the form of sulphate in their study in order to prevent the occurrence of hoof diseases. The study conducted by Faulkner et al [ 114 ] reported a possible positive effect that organic zinc may have on the incidence of dermatitis digitalis in cattle. Faulkner et al [ 114 ] found that feeding organic forms of zinc contributes, amongst other things, to reductions in the colonization of bacteria ( Treponema spp.…”

Rumen microbial responses to supplemental nitrate. II. Potential interactions with live yeast culture on the prokaryotic community and methanogenesis in continuous culture

“…The DNA was sequenced using the Illumina MiSeq platform (Illumina Inc., San Diego, CA) at the Molecular and Cellular Imaging Center (The Ohio State University, Ohio Agricultural and Research and Development Center, Wooster) with a single lane of Illumina MiSeq using 2 × 300-bp paired end reads following established HMP protocols (Caporaso et al, 2010). Data were analyzed as described by Faulkner et al (2017). Briefly, processing was performed using QIIME 1.9.0 (Caporaso et al, 2010) and assigned taxonomy using the 97_SILVA_111 rep set (v123, http: / / www .arb -silva .de/ ; Edgar, 2013;Quast et al, 2013).…”

Differential Microbial Communities of Omnivorous and Herbivorous Cattle in Southern China

“…In the literature, microbiome projects on cattle have mainly focused on determining the effects of different dietary treatments on gut bacterial composition. This includes varying concentrations of fiber and starch [ 1 , 2 ] to the addition of supplements such as copper, zinc, manganese [ 3 ] and mineral salts [ 4 ]. These studies are beneficial in exploring approaches that may improve milk yield, meat mass, productivity and metabolic activity of cattle, especially for the dairy cow.…”