Finding innovations to improve calf gastrointestinal health

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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.