Studies on the prophylactic effect of feeding probiotics, pathogen‐specific colostrum antibodies or egg yolk antibodies in newborn calves The prophylactic efficacy of feeding probiotics, specific egg yolk antibodies and specific colostrum antibodies on neonatal diarrhoea was investigated in a field trial with calves, grouped (n = 39/40 per group) according to the following treatments: Group I: feeding no additive; Group II: feeding probiotics (5 g powder/day with Bacillus cereus var. toyoi); Group III: feeding egg powder (10 g/day with specific egg yolk antibodies against rotavirus, coronavirus and Escherichia coli F5); Group IV: feeding colostrum antibodies (10 ml/day containing 1 g bovine immunoglobulins with specific antibodies against rotavirus, coronavirus and E. coli antigens); Group V: feeding egg powder together with probiotics (according to group II and III). The additives were given twice daily with the meal from day 2 to day 14 post‐natum. The presence of infectious agents was proved in fecal samples of all calves. Intestinal infections with rotavirus (30.8% of the calves) predominated compared to those with coronavirus (7.1%), E. coli F5 (1.5%) and cryptosporidia (24.2%). In contrast to earlier studies, the manifestation of diarrhoea did not differ significantly between the five groups. Only the growth rate of the calves between day 2 and day 14 of life as a measure of their welfare showed treatmentFspecific differences. The control group (I) showed the lowest body weight gain of about 5.8 kg (SD 5.0), whereas in the treated groups it averaged 6.3 kg (SD 4.1, p = 0,60; group II), 6.8 kg (SD 4.3, p = 0.36; group III), 6.9 kg (SD 4.7, p = 0.61; group IV) and 7.7 kg (SD 4.9, p = 0.08; group V). Considering only the rotavirus‐positive calves the body weight gain of the control group (I) was 3.5 kg (SD 4.8) and of the treated groups was 3.8 kg (SD 3.3, p = 0.65; II), 5.0 kg (SD 3.5, p = 0.54; III), 6.6 kg (SD 4.5, p = 0.05; IV) and 6.1 kg (SD 5.0, p = 0.13; V). Obviously, the feeding of antibodies from colostrum or from egg powder does increase the mean body weight gain. The feeding of probiotics alone has nearly no effect. However, in the combination with specific egg antibodies probiotics seem to have a synergistic effect. In serum from the 198 newborn calves the IgG concentration averaged 4.9 mg/ml serum (SD 3.3). From 93 dams of these calves a sample of the first colostrum could be obtained showing a mean IgG concentration of 22.0 mg/ml (SD 11.0). IgG levels in the colostrum and in the serum have been positively correlated (r = 0.37, p < 0.05). Calves with a high intensity of diarrhoea had a significantly (p = 0.01) lower mean IgG serum level (3.7 mg/ml; n = 36; SD 2.5) than calves without diarrhoea (5.6 mg/ml; n = 75; SD 4.0).
Untersuchungen zur prophylaktischen Wirkung der Verfütterung eines Probiotikums und von erregerspezifischen Kolostrum‐ und Dotterantikörpern bei neugeborenen Kälbern