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ARS Home » Plains Area » Clay Center, Nebraska » U.S. Meat Animal Research Center » Animal Health Genomics » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #407110
Research Project: Strategies to Control Respiratory Diseases of Cattle

Location: Animal Health Genomics

Title: Probiotics in milk replacer affect the lung microbiome of neonatal dairy calves

Author
item Chitko-Mckown, Carol
item McDaneld, Tara
item KRITSHEVSKY, JANCIE - Purdue University
item BRYAN, KEITH - Chr Hansen Inc
item EICHER, SUSAN - Retired ARS Employee

Submitted to: Conference Research Workers Disease Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/23/2023
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: OBJECTIVE: Probiotics have been investigated for many health benefits, however, little research has been done to determine the effects of oral probiotics on the microbiome of the bovine respiratory tract. Previous data has indicated that probiotics administered to neonatal dairy calves in their milk replacer resulted in changes in the bacterial taxa in relative abundance with the addition of the probiotic compared to the control diet in both nasal and tonsil samples. Our hypothesis for this study was that this same probiotic treatment would result in changes in the lung microbiome as measured in lung lavage fluid. METHODS: A group of 20 dairy calves were split into two treatment groups: Control (N=10, milk replacer), and Probiotic (N=10, milk replacer + 0.5g/day Bovamine Dairy). On day 0 birth weight was obtained and the calves were provided colostrum as per the dairy SOP. On day 2, probiotics were added to the milk replacer of the treated group then included in their dry ration. Lung lavages were performed on day 52 on five calves from each treatment group. DNA was extracted from lavage fluid to evaluate the bacterial populations in the lung microbiome [MTRA1] [CMCRA2]. Hypervariable regions 1 through 3 along the 16S ribosomal RNA gene were amplified by PCR and sequenced by Illumina MiSeq to determine the bacterial taxa present. RESULTS: Preliminary data indicated that the bacterial genera identified in the lungs of probiotic-fed calves as compared to the control calves are significantly different (P<0.05). Additionally, when comparing diversity of taxa in the lung lavage samples to nasal and tonsil samples, taxa diversity of lung samples was significantly lower (P<0.05). As a result, numerous taxa [MTRA3] [CMCRA4] were identified to be significantly different in abundance in tonsil and nasal samples compared to lung lavage samples (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Oral probiotics effect more than the gut microbiome.