Evaluation of performance, blood parameters and microbial population of feces in suckling Holstein calves fed with supplemented milk by inulin prebiotic

Future of dairy herds greatly depends on a standard and suitable calf rearing. Improving health and welfare parameters of calves will be resulted in rearing potent heifers in milk production and calving. Moreover, it is better to approach a maximum efficiency of calf rearing with hazardless methods and minimum side effects. Considering antibiotics resistance and growth hormones remnants in animal bodies, prebiotics are fascinating alternatives to be evaluated.
Twenty-four female Holstein calves, aging 18±3 days and body weight of 36±4 kg, were randomly assigned to groups including milk without additive, milk plus 3.5 g/day inulin and milk plus 7 g/day inulin so as to evaluation effect of using inulin as a prebiotic on growth performance, blood parameters and colonic microbial population of suckling calves. Experiment was carried out in a one-week adaptation followed by a six weeks measuring and recording period. Claves were weaned when they consumed 900 grams of starter (dry matter). Dry matter intake and feces score monitoring were recorded daily, and calves were weighed weekly. Feces sampling and blood sampling were done in (third and sixth) and (second, fourth and sixth) weeks of experiment, respectively.
There were no significant differences among groups in dry matter intake, average daily gain and feed conversion rate. Adding inulin prebiotic had no significant effect on blood parameters, although cholesterol and triglyceride concentration showed a trend toward reduction in groups receiving inulin. Feces pH and lactobacillus and coliform bacteria count did not differ among treatments.
Results of present study showed that supplemented milk with inulin oligosaccharide for six weeks had no significant effect on grows performance, dry matter intake, feed conversion rate, lactobacillus and coliform bacteria count, feces pH and blood parameters of Holstein suckling calves.