Effects of beta-glucans addition on milk replacer for Holstein dairy calves.

Abstract:

M111
Effects of beta-glucans addition on milk replacer for Holstein dairy calves.
M. E. Reis*¹, A. F. Toledo¹, A. P. Silva¹, A. M. Cezar¹, E. A. Fioruci¹, R. C. Silva¹, S. C. Dond�¹, L. Greco², C. M. M. Bittar¹. ¹Dept. Of Animal Sciences, College of Agriculture Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ), University of Sao Paulo Piracicaba, Sao Paulo, Brazil, ²Kemin Animal Nutrition & Health Division South America Valinhos, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The study aimed to investigate how addition of β-glucans can affect calf's growth performance, health, and fecal score. Holstein calves (n = 32) were individually housed in tropical shelters and blocked according to sex, date and weight at birth and randomly assigned to 1 of the treatments: (1) Control: milk replacer (14% solids, 24% CP, 18.5% Fat); (2) Aleta: milk replacer supplemented with β-glucans (Aleta, 2 g/d). All calves were bucket fed 6L/d of milk replacer and received water and starter concentrate ad libitum starting on d 2. Feed intake, health score and fecal score were recorded daily. Data were analyzed as repeated measures using PROC Mixed of SAS.There was no difference on concentrate intake and ADG between treatments (P > 0.05). Feed efficiency was affected by treatment and age interaction (P = 0.04), with higher FE for β-glucans supplemented animals only in the third and fifth week of age. Supplemented calves presented lower fecal score (P = 0.01), decreased days with diarrhea (P = 0.01) and higher final BW (P = 0.05; Table 1). Overall, β-glucans supplementation may improve feed efficiency, final BW and fecal score during the preweaning phase.Table 1. Performance of calves supplemented or not with beta-glucans

Item	Treatment			P-value1
Control	β-glucan	EPM	T	A	T�A
Concentrate intake, g DM/d	251.86	311.13	31.11	0.17	<0.01	0.40
ADG, kg	0.276	0.328	0.04	0.10	<0.01	0.06
FE	0.238	0.290	0.03	0.08	0.05	0.04
Birth BW	36.17	36.60	1.33	0.52	-	-
Final BW, 8 wk	51.53	56.35	2.17	0.05	-	-
Average BW, kg	42.76	44.86	1.58	0.13	<0.01	0.08
Fecal score	1.46	1.06	0.09	0.01	<0.01	0.10
Days with diarrhea	25.73	14.67	2.96	0.01	-	-

¹T = treatment effect; A = age effect; T�A = treatment vs. age effect.

Keywords: Saccharomyces cerevisiae, growth, diarrhea.