Probiotics support health, production of dairy cows

MADISON, Wis. — Effective probiotics can reduce antibiotic use in dairy herds.

“A probiotic is a live organism that is administered in an adequate amount for a health benefit to a host,” said Ryan Royer, a veterinarian and technical service manager for Novonesis.

“I have my own definition of a probiotic,” he said during a presentation at the Knowledge Nook held at the World Dairy Expo. “It must be science based, research proven and easy to give because typically we need to give it every day.”

Probiotics will multiply in the body, the veterinarian said, but they don’t necessarily maintain a habitat full time in the body.

“We want to support the normal function of the rumen and the gastrointestinal tract,” Royer said.

“If we achieve that, we support animal health, production and overall wellbeing,” he said.

“Nothing is a silver bullet — I don’t care if it comes in a bottle from your veterinarian as an antibiotic or it comes in a bag from your feed supplier,” he stressed. “We have to think about tools in a toolbox versus a fix-all one product concept.”

A probiotic should support the digestion of the feeds consumed and absorption of the nutrients provided by those feedstuffs, Royer said.

“Hopefully it can support the barrier function in the gut and support the immune system,” he said.

Health comes from the immune response.

“The immune system is responsible for health and the gastrointestinal tract is the largest immune organ in any mammalian species,” Royer said.

He discussed a study that included 30 dairy calves divided into three groups. One group did not receive a probiotic, one group was given two probiotics and the third group received the same two probiotics plus two more.

“After seven days of probiotics, the calves were given Clostridium perfringens type A, which is a common clostridial infection of calves that infects about every farm,” Royer said.

For general impression of the calf, appearance of the calf and diarrhea scores, the results were similar.

“About 50% of the control animals didn’t look the best,” Royer said. “About 80% of the calves given two probiotics looked good, and the calves that got four probiotics looked better, but statistically the same as the calves in the group of two probiotics.”

However, the important result for the veterinarian was the survival rate of the calves.

“For the control calves, four survived the trial,” he said. “Two calves that were given two probiotics died, which is not an acceptable death loss, but improved over the non-probiotic calves and all the calves survived that were given four probiotics.”

A study in Brazil was conducted on a farm that had challenges with calf health. It included 30 calves that received a probiotic and 30 calves that did not.

“The probiotic calves weighed 14 pounds heavier at weaning than the control group,” Royer said.

For the diarrhea score, 50% of the calves had diarrhea and 30% of the calves that received a probiotic showed diarrhea.

“That is not statistically different; however, we would prefer 30% instead of 50%,” Royer said.

“We did have statistical significance for pneumonia,” he said. “For the control calves, 47% got pneumonia and 23% of the calves given probiotics.”

About day 12 to 13, the probiotic calves stabilized for diarrhea.

“There were no more cases of diarrhea, but the control group continued to have cases of diarrhea until day 78,” Royer said. “For pneumonia, we don’t see that as early as diarrhea, but it was a similar trend.”

“The end goal is for the animals in our care to have a healthy, non-stressed existence, exhibiting natural behaviors while simultaneously growing, reproducing and producing wholesome meat and milk at optimal levels that corresponds to their environment,” he said.

“We’re only going to get out of our animals as much as we put into them, but we want to optimize that,” Royer said.

“I think we’re just scratching the surface of what some new novel pathways that effective probiotics can open when it comes to livestock,” he said.