Early Life Fecal Microbiota Transplantation in Neonatal Dairy Calves Promotes Growth Performance and Alleviates Inflammation and Oxidative Stress during Weaning

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of early life fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) on the health and performance of neonatal dairy calves. The donor was selected based on health and production records and fecal material testing negative for infectious pathogens. Sixteen healthy newborn Holstein calves were randomized to either a baseline nutritional program (CON) or 1×/d inoculations with 25 g of fecal donor material (FMT) mixed in the milk replacer (n = 8/TRT) from 8 to 12 days of age. Blood and fecal samples were collected weekly, and calves were weaned at 7 weeks of age. A TRT × Week interaction was observed in haptoglobin, which was reflected in a positive quadratic effect in FMT calves but not in CON. A trend for a TRT × Week interaction was observed in the liver function biomarker paraoxonase, which resulted in greater paraoxonase in FMT calves than CON at three weeks of age. Fecal microbial community analysis revealed a significant increase in the alpha-diversity between week 1 and week 5 for the FMT calves. These results suggest that early life FMT in neonatal calves has positive effects in mediating the inflammatory response and gut microbial maturation.

Host-specific probiotics feeding influence growth, gut microbiota, and fecal biomarkers in buffalo calves

“…Phylum level classification of the 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing data revealed that Bacteroidetes , Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria were the same dominant microbial taxa in the developing gut of preweaning calves as compared to the adult animal gut, which was in accordance with the previous reports (Rosa et al 2021 ; Guo et al 2022 ; Dixit et al 2022 ). It has been demonstrated that Bacteroidetes are known to play a crucial role in the degradation of starch, fiber, dietary protein, and absorption of amino acids and peptides in the intestine (Malmuthuge et al 2015 ).…”

“…Accumulating research evidence has revealed the potential role of early-life gut microbiota in shaping and programming the host mucosal immune system and its long-term impacts on metabolic consequences in adult life (Choudhury et al 2021 ; Rosa et al 2021 ; Wu et al 2021 ). This intricate knowledge of the host-microbial relationship may provide a ‘window of opportunity’ for the successful manipulation of the gut microflora using dietary interventions.…”

Effects of a farm-specific fecal microbial transplant (FMT) product on clinical outcomes and fecal microbiome composition in preweaned dairy calves

“…that dairy calves that received 25 g of FMT mixed in the milk replacer from 8-12 days of age showed an increase in diversity [64]. Within the 81 ASVs that were kept in our dataset, we identified only one specific organism (Oribacterium sinus) that was shared exclusively between the FMT product and calves that received FMT (Fig 3).…”

“…Overall, FMT administration failed to prevent or treat GI disease in our study and was associated with an increase in the number of calves that died. Previous studies that successfully administered FMT targeting GI disease in young animals used fecal samples from older animals (21-50 days of age) or adult donors [23,61,62,64]. Given that during maturation the GI tract undergoes several morphological and functional adaptations early in life [69], we chose to use fecal samples from donor calves roughly the same age as the FMT recipients.…”

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“…The patients received greater microbial diversity with endoscopic improvement. [20] There is need of some deep studies which may be helpful to verify the worth of multi-donor FMT.…”