Comparison of Reconstituted, Acidified Reconstituted Milk or Acidified Fresh Milk on Growth Performance, Diarrhea Rate, and Hematological Parameters in Preweaning Dairy Calves

SIMPLE SUMMARY: The preweaning phase is the period for the rapid growth and development of dairy calves. During this period, dairy calves receive their nutrients through milk. Feeding hygienic milk is of great benefit to optimum growth rate and health status of dairy calves. Previous studies focused on the effects of hygienic milk by acidification on dairy calves’ health and growth. Reconstituted milk, as the common source of milk, is being used in dairy calves feeding. However, no previous studies reported the effects of feeding acidified reconstituted milk on dairy calves’ health and growth. Our study will provide the evidence that the acidification of reconstituted milk had positive effects on growth performance and health status of preweaning dairy calves. ABSTRACT: The present experiment was carried out to assess the effects of reconstituted milk (RM), acidified reconstituted milk (ARM), and acidified fresh milk (AFM) on growth performance, diarrhea rate, and hematological parameters of preweaning dairy calves. For this purpose, a total of 27 Holstein female calves (one month of age) with initial body weight of (67.46 ± 4.08) kg were divided into three groups in such a way that each group contained nine calves. Calves were housed individually, and starter was offered ad libitum to each calf. The dietary treatments were RM, ARM, and AFM. The highest milk intake was observed in calves receiving AFM as compared to other treatments (p < 0.01). Calves fed AFM had more feed intake than those fed ARM and RM (p < 0.01). Feed efficiency was significantly lower for calves offered ARM than those offered RM and AFM (p < 0.01). A lower withers height growth was found for calves fed RM than those fed ARM and AFM (p <0.05). Diarrhea rate and white blood cell (WBC) and lymphocytes (LYM) counts were greater for calves fed RM than those fed ARM and AFM (p < 0.05). These findings suggested that ARM and AFM had positive effects on growth performance and health status of the preweaning dairy calves.