Finding innovations to improve calf gastrointestinal health

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The Canadian dairy industry is one of the largest agricultural sectors in the country, contributing almost 20billion dollars to the GDP every year. Despite this rapid growth, dairy calves continue to suffer from high ratesof morbidity and mortality, with digestive disorders accounting for over half of reported illnesses and one-thirdof deaths. Several factors embedded within current management practices pose challenges to animal guthealth, compromising their tract barrier function, normally referred to as "leaky gut". Studying the contributingfactors of leaky gut is difficult because the conditions responsible for reducing intestinal barrier integrity canalso affect the metabolism of other tissues. Probiotics promote gut mucosal health by limiting pathogeninvasion and providing a stable, nutrient-rich environment for gut microbiota, thereby enhancing host digestiveefficiency and immune function. Lactobacillus helveticus (LH) supplementation has been shown toimprove gut barrier function through modulation of gut immune function. However, no studies have evaluatedthe effects of LH on barrier function, inflammation, and gut health in ruminants during preweaning andpostweaning. Furthermore, there is currently limited information regarding models to study leaky gut inisolation. Previous research has unsuccessfully attempted to create models to induce leaky gut and has focusedsolely on the systemic inflammatory response without directly assessing gut permeability. Therefore, thisproposal aims to improve our understanding of how this digestive disorder impacts host physiology and animalperformance. This research encompasses the development of a model to better understand the aetiology ofleaky gut and the models generated will serve to evaluate the impact of LH supplementation onbarrier function, inflammatory response and energy metabolism.