ISSUE FOCUS 30 FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE January 2024 “Fast and healthy rearing of calves is an essential element for the farmer to obtain commercial success. This study demonstrated the potential of Aromabiotic® Cattle as part of the dry cow diet to improve colostrum quality.” Providing calves good quality colostrum is important to give them a head start in life. Since there is limited transfer of immunoglobulins (Ig) during gestation, the delivery of the most dominant form IgG through colostrum from the cow to the calf is essential in the first day of life. At Agrimprove, we believe that the dry period is key and offers an interesting window to boost calf immunity. IMPROVING COLOSTRUM QUALITY Generally, 50 g/L IgG is accepted as a threshold for good quality bovine colostrum (Quigley et al., 2013). These values are often not reached in practice, putting limits on the chances of successful calf rearing. Strategies to improve colostrum quality and increase IgG concentrations have been widely investigated. The dry period is of particularly interest to improve the quality of colostrum. This is the ideal moment to intervene via the diet of the calf’s mother, for example by supplementing medium-chain fatty acids (MCFA). Besides the positive effects of MCFA on modulating rumen fermentation, impacting the immune system and ultimately improving milk quality during lactation, MCFA could as well improve colostrum quality. Indeed, an improved health status during the dry period could positively impact the quality of the cow’s first milk. In swine, it was shown that the addition of MCFA in the maternal diet improved colostrum quality (Swanson, 2022). More recently, the positive effect of MCFA in C-vita on colostrum quality in swine colostrum was also observed (Crowder & Lannoo, 2023). QUANTIFY THE MATERNAL EFFECT OF MEDIUM-CHAIN FATTY ACIDS Experiments were designed to quantify the effect of Aromabiotic® Cattle (ABC), a mixture of MCFA, on colostrum IgG levels in dairy cattle under field circumstances. On two dairy farms in Belgium, cows were given a daily supplement of ABC during the dry period. On the first farm, starting at least 2 weeks before calving, an all-in-all-out approach was applied, allowing to compare a first set of control cows without ABC to a subsequent period with ABC during summer season. On the second farm, starting 3 weeks prior to calving, two of these alternating periods were applied, allowing to compare summer and winter season as well. Colostrum was collected from the first milking of 86 dairy cows on farm 1 and 87 cows on farm 2. IgG was analysed using radial immunodiffusion. BOOSTING CALF IMMUNITY THROUGH MCFA IN MOTHER’S DIET Frederik Gadeyne Product Developer Cattle Agrimprove
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