Effects of ß-Mannanase and Bacteriophage Supplementation on Health and Growth Performance of Holstein Calves.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation with bacteriophage and ß-mannanase on health and growth performance in calves. Thirty-six pre-weaning male Holstein calves were randomly allocated to one of four dietary treatments with a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement: no supplementation, 0.1% ß-mannanase, 0.1% bacteriophage, and both 0.1% bacteriophage and 0.1% ß-mannanase supplementation in a starter on a dry matter basis. The experiment lasted from 2 weeks before weaning to 8 weeks after weaning. Twenty-two calves survived to the end of the experiment. No interaction was observed between the two different feed additives. The bacteriophage supplementation tended to increase the odds ratio of survival (p = 0.09). The number of Escherichia coli in feces significantly decreased by bacteriophage supplementation one week after weaning. ß-mannanase supplementation increased the concentrate intake (p < 0.01) and tended to increase the final BW (p = 0.08). Analysis of repeated measures indicated ß-mannanase supplementation increased weekly body weight gain (p = 0.018). We conclude that bacteriophage supplementation may have a positive effect on calf survival rate, while ß-mannanase supplementation may increase the growth rate and starter intake by calves just before and after weaning.

The co-injection of antioxidants with foot-and-mouth disease vaccination altered growth performance and blood parameters of finishing Holstein steers.

OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to evaluate whether the co-injection of antioxidants together with foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccination has the potential to attenuate the negative effects caused by vaccination in Holstein finishing steers. METHODS: A total of 36 finishing Holstein steers (body weight [BW]: 608±45.6 kg, 17 months old) were randomly allocated to one of three treatments: i) control (CON, only FMD vaccination without any co-injection), ii) co-injection of commercial non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) with FMD vaccination at a ratio of 10:1 (NSAID vol/FMD vaccine vol) as a positive control (PCON), iii) co-injection of commercial mixture of vitamin E and selenium with FMD vaccination (VITESEL) (1 mL of FMD vaccine+1 mL of antioxidants per 90 kg of BW). Changes in growth performance and blood parameters because of treatments were determined. RESULTS: No significant difference in BW, average daily gain, and dry matter intake of the steers was observed among the treatments. The FMD vaccination significantly increased white blood cells (WBC), neutrophils, platelets, and mean platelet volume (p<0.01) in blood analysis. The count of lymphocyte tended to increase after vaccination (p = 0.08). In blood analysis, steers in VITESEL tended to have higher numbers of WBC, neutrophils, and platelets compared to that of other treatments (p = 0.09, 0.06, and 0.09, respectively). Eosinophils in VITESEL were higher than those in PCON (p<0.01). Among blood metabolites, blood urea nitrogen and aspartate transaminase were significantly increased, but cholesterol, alanine transferase, inorganic phosphorus, Mg, and albumin were decreased after FMD vaccination (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: The use of antioxidants in FMD vaccination did not attenuate growth disturbance because of FMD vaccination. The metabolic changes induced by vaccination were not controlled by the administration of antioxidants. The protective function of antioxidants was effective mainly on the cell counts of leukocytes.

Comparison of models for estimating methane emission factor for enteric fermentation of growing-finishing Hanwoo steers.

The methodology provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines is widely used for estimating enteric methane (CH4) production by cattle. No attempt other than the default values in the IPCC Tier 1 has been made for estimating CH4 emission from Hanwoo, a dominant beef species in Korea raised in a unique feeding system. The objective of this study was to compare models for estimating the CH4 emission factor (MEF; kg CH4/head/year) for enteric fermentation in Hanwoo steers. The MEF was estimated based on Korea- and Hanwoo-specific data obtained from the literature using several models. The models include the IPCC Tier 1 (T1), the IPCC Tier 2 method (T2), the IPCC Tier 2 methodology with actual dry matter intake (T2DMI), and the Japanese Tier 3 method (JT3). The JT3 was included due to the similarity in the beef cattle production system between the two countries. Estimated MEF using T2 were 43.4, 33.9, and 36.2 kg CH4/head/year for the growing, finishing, and overall period, respectively. The overall MEF estimated using T2 was 23 % lower than the estimate by T1 (47.0 kg CH4/head/year). There were significant differences in the estimated MEF for enteric fermentation of Hanwoo steers among the methods (P < 0.05). The overall MEF estimated by JT3 was 69.1 kg CH4/head/year, which was significantly higher than the estimates by T2 (36.2 kg) and T2DMI (33.5 kg). The JT3 estimated the highest values in all periods possibly due to overestimation of the conversion ratio of feed energy to CH4. No significant difference was found in the overall MEF of Hanwoo steers between T2 and T2DMI. However, T2DMI estimated 8 % higher and 14 % lower MEF than T2 for the growing and finishing period, respectively, mainly because the T2 significantly over-predicts the gross energy intake of Hanwoo steers at the high level of intake. The IPCC default methods have limitations in their use for a feeding systems in non-western countries, and thus development of a country-specific methodology and parameter estimates for enteric CH4 production is required for Hanwoo and other cattle production systems.