Finding innovations to improve calf gastrointestinal health

加拿大有超过1.2万个农场，有100万头奶牛，为我们的国内经济贡献了80亿美元。一般来说，新生儿和断奶前时期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，腹泻是犊牛健康问题的最常见原因。为了治疗和控制这种腹泻，生产者往往依靠抗生素治疗。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。改善小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，以减少胃肠道（GIT）的致病菌定植。益生菌是一种活的微生物，经证明直接喂给动物不会产生任何药物残留。一种特殊的酵母益生菌，博氏酿酒酵母（SB），已被证明可以改善人类和猪的胃肠道健康和肠道微生物平衡，但尚未对小牛进行深入研究。拟议的项目将在小牛肉生产系统中对奶牛的健康和胃肠道功能进行表征，并观察添加SB是否会对健康、胃肠道功能、结构和微生物群产生影响。此外，该项目的第二个目标是探索SB在小牛消化道不同区域的定植和生存能力，并评估SB的影响。该项目预计将对奶牛替代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.