Finding innovations to improve calf gastrointestinal health

加拿大有12,000多个农场，饲养着100万头奶牛，为我们的国内经济贡献了8 B美元。一般来说，新生期和断奶前是乳制品生产中最具挑战性的时期，导致最高的死亡率和发病率，腹泻是小牛健康问题的最常见原因。为了治疗和控制这种腹泻，生产者通常依赖抗生素治疗。近年来，公众对抗生素耐药性的日益关注促使动物科学家研究替代营养技术。改善犊牛健康和福利的另一种方法是提供非抗菌饲料添加剂，如益生菌，以最大限度地减少胃肠道（GIT）的致病菌定植。益生菌是活的微生物，直接喂给动物时不会产生药物残留。一种特定的酵母益生菌，酿酒酵母布拉氏菌（SB），已被证明可以改善人类和猪的GIT健康和肠道微生物平衡，但尚未在小牛中进行彻底研究。拟议的项目将采用表征小牛肉生产系统中奶牛的健康和胃肠道功能，并观察SB的添加是否会影响健康，胃肠道功能，结构和微生物群。此外，该项目的第二个目的是探索SB在小牛肉消化道不同区域的定殖和存活能力，并评估SB的影响。该项目有望对奶牛替代品和小牛肉行业的动物健康和生产效率产生重大影响，同时减少抗生素的过度使用。

There are one million dairy cows in Canada on over 12,000 farms which contributes $8 B to our domesticeconomy. Generally, the neonatal and pre-weaned periods are the most challenging in dairy production,resulting in the highest mortality and morbidity rates and diarrhea is the most common cause of calf healthproblems. In order to treat and control this diarrhea producers often rely on antibiotic therapy. The increasedpublic concern about antibiotic resistance has driven animal scientists to investigate alternative nutritionaltechnologies in recent years. An alternative approach to improve calf health and welfare is to providenon-antimicrobial feed additives such as probiotics that minimize pathogenic bacteria colonization of thegastrointestinal tract (GIT). Probiotics are living microorganisms that have been shown to produce no drugresidues when directly fed to animals. One specific yeast probiotic, Saccharomyces cerevisiae boulardii (SB),has been shown to improve GIT health and intestinal microbial balance in humans and pigs but has not beenthoroughly studied in calves. The proposed project will employ characterizing the health and gastrointestinalfunction of dairy calves in the veal production system and to see if the addition of SB can impact on health,gastrointestinal function, structure and microbiota. Moreover, the second aim of the proposed project will be toexplore the colonization and viability of SB in the different regions of digestive tract of veal calves as well asevaluating the effects of SB. The project is expected to have a significant impact on animal health andproduction efficiency in dairy replacement and veal industry while reducing the overuse of antibiotics.