Beaver Annabelle, Petersen Charisse, Weary Daniel M, Finlay B Brett, von Keyserlingk Marina A G
Animal Welfare Program, Faculty of Land and Food Systems, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6T 1Z4.
Department of Veterinary Health and Animal Sciences, Harper Adams University, Shropshire, United Kingdom, TF10 8NB.
JDS Commun. 2021 Jun 23;2(4):200-206. doi: 10.3168/jdsc.2020-0059. eCollection 2021 Jul.
The practice of rearing cows and calves together is gaining popularity on dairy farms, with different systems currently under assessment in mainland Europe, the United Kingdom, and Oceania. Research into the effects of cow-calf rearing has primarily focused on direct health and welfare implications, and little work has examined the role of different rearing paradigms on calf microbiota. We trialed a cow-calf rearing system on a Canadian dairy farm and compared fecal microbiota of these calves with the microbiota of calves reared according to the conventional practice of the same farm (separated from the dam and fed waste milk). At 4 wk, the conventionally reared calves had reduced relative abundance of and higher relative abundance of other taxa, including , , and We also detected predicted functional differences, such as reduced l-tryptophan biosynthesis in conventionally reared calves. These results suggest that maternal contact may influence the calf microbiota, but the observed differences are also likely related to other aspects of the rearing environment independent of maternal contact (e.g., potential exposure to antibiotic residues in waste milk). These findings provide preliminary evidence of the effects of early rearing environments on the establishment of the dairy calf fecal microbiota. This research is needed, given the critical role of the bovine gut microbiome in behavioral, metabolic, and immune development.
奶牛和牛犊一起饲养的做法在奶牛场越来越普遍，目前欧洲大陆、英国和大洋洲正在评估不同的饲养系统。关于奶牛与牛犊饲养效果的研究主要集中在对健康和福利的直接影响上，很少有研究探讨不同饲养模式对牛犊微生物群的作用。我们在加拿大一个奶牛场试验了一种奶牛与牛犊的饲养系统，并将这些牛犊的粪便微生物群与按照该农场传统做法（与母牛分开并喂食废乳）饲养的牛犊的微生物群进行了比较。在4周龄时，传统饲养的牛犊某些菌群的相对丰度降低，而其他分类群的相对丰度较高，包括某些菌属。我们还检测到了预测的功能差异，例如传统饲养的牛犊中L-色氨酸生物合成减少。这些结果表明，与母牛接触可能会影响牛犊的微生物群，但观察到的差异也可能与饲养环境中与母牛接触无关的其他方面有关（例如，废乳中可能接触到抗生素残留）。这些发现为早期饲养环境对奶牛犊粪便微生物群建立的影响提供了初步证据。鉴于牛肠道微生物群在行为、代谢和免疫发育中的关键作用，开展此类研究很有必要。
