Lactic acid bacteria to improve growth performance in young calves fed milk replacer and spray-dried whey powder

Healthy calves have a balanced intestinal microbiota that allows them to grow adequately. Use of microorganisms with probiotic capacity is an alternative method for treatment and prevention of some bovine diseases. Incorporation of probiotics in young calf diets prevents the occurrence of possible imbalances in the normal microbiota in the intestinal tract and contributes to improved growth of young calves housed under stressful conditions by preventing diarrhea. In this study, effects of a lactic acid bacterial inoculum of bovine origin composed of Lactobacillus casei DSPV 318T, Lactobacillus salivarius DSPV 315T and Pediococcus acidilactici DSPV 006T was evaluated by measuring growth performance and health state of young calves fed milk replacer and spray-dried whey powder. The inoculum with three microorganisms suspended in 0.15 M NaCl was orally administered to an experimental group of calves, on a 10(9) CFU/kg live weight daily dose for 35 days. The control group was administered only an NaCl solution as placebo. The diet consisted of 41/d milk replacer (110 g dry matter/l), supplemented with 200 g spray-dried whey powder. The microbial inoculum was examined in an experimental model with young calves fed milk replacer and a large quantity of spray-dried whey powder to generate an intestinal imbalance. Under these conditions, the inoculum promoted earlier consumption of starter and, indirectly, may have stimulated earlier development of the rumen, omasum and reticulum. thus favoring early weaning. Inoculated calves had better growth performance, which could be related to a better digestion of lactose and spray-dried whey proteins, which justifies use of the inoculum with the spray-dried whey powder during calf rearing since it will reduce production costs and favor system sustainability. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.