The effects of a medical plant mix and probiotic on performance and health status of suckling Holstein calves

Abstract

This study was carried out to evaluate the effects of a medical plant mixture and probiotic on performance, blood parameters, digestibility of some nutrients, and health status of suckling Holstein calves. Thirty newborn calves (1-10 days) with 42 ± 8 kg of average birth weight were used in a factorial arrangement (3 Â 2) with 6 treatments and 5 replicate. The treatments were: (1) control diet, (2) control diet þ2g probiotic per day, (3) control diet þ 1.5% medical plant, (4) control diet þ1.5% medical plant þ2g probiotic per day, (5) control diet þ 3% medical plant and (6) control diet þ3% medical plant þ2g probiotic per day. During first month, experimental factors have no effect on starter and hay intake, whereas total DMI was affected by herbal (H) effect in second month (p < .01). Calves fed on H1.5 diet had the highest starter and total DMI and calves fed on PH3 diet had the lowest value. Daily weight gain (DWG) was affected significantly by H (p < .01) whereas no effect from P was observed. Treatments had no significant effect on blood glucose, cholesterol and albumin content, whereas addition of H1.5 in starter feed increased beta-hydroxy butyric acid (BHBA) concentration in comparison to other groups (p < .05). In conclusion and based on better growth performance, it is recommended to feed H1.5 to milk suckling calves and feeding herbal additives with probiotic is not recommended. ARTICLE HISTORY

Effect of selected feed additives to improve growth and health of dairy calves

“…At the pre-weaning stage, ADG and FE were not different among treatments. These results concur with other studies in which probiotics or EO were fed to calves before weaning [35]. The significant increase in ADG and FE after weaning of EO-fed calves shows that there was a positive residual effect of EO 15 days after stopping supplementation with that additive.…”

Siyah Alaca Buzağılarda Kekik Yağının (Origanum onites L.) Buzağıların Gelişim Performansı ve Bazı Kan Parametreleri Üzerine Etkisi

“…It was observed that oregano oil group calves consumed more 3.3 kg milk replacer, 1.98 kg hay and 2.4 kg concentrate feed than the control group (Table 2). Similar results were reported by Morrison et al (2010), Ünlü andErkek, (2013), Özalpaydin, (2014), Silper et al (2014), andSeifzadeh et al (2017), while Santos et al (2015) stated that oregano oil decreased the amount of consumption of milk replacer. These differences can be thought to be caused by the fact that essential oils are given to animals in different doses.…”

Isolation and identification of potentially probiotic lactic acid bacteria for Holstein calves in the Mexican Plateau

“…Los ensayos clínicos realizados en la década pasada, demostraron que el 45 % de probióticos comercializados, tienen nula eficiencia de las BAL en la prevención de diarreas en becerras, e incluso parece que estos en lugar de favorecer, incrementaron la incidencia y severidad de diarreas (4,5) , y no hay respuesta para mejorar la ganancia diaria de peso y la conversión alimenticia (6,7) . En la actualidad estos mismos parámetros son similares por los laboratorios que comercializan probióticos en las unidades de producción ganadera lechera.…”