Comparative study of different liquid diets for dairy calves and the impact on performance and the bacterial community during diarrhea

The liquid diet composition can affect dairy calves' performance and diarrhea incidence. The effect of three liquid diets on performance, incidence of diarrhea, and microbial community during diarrhea occurrence in dairy calves were evaluated. At birth, 35 dairy calves (20 male and 15 female) were randomly assigned to one of three treatments—refrigerated whole milk (WM), acidified whole milk (AWM), and milk replacer (MR). Intake, fecal score, and rectal temperature were evaluated daily, and performance and blood parameters were evaluated weekly during the preweaning period. Fecal samples from diarrheic calves were collected, and one initial and one final sample for each episode were selected. The bacterial community was assessed by sequencing the V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene on the Illumina MiSeq platform and analyzed using the DADA2 pipeline. Calves fed WM had higher body weight at weaning, average daily gain, body measurements, and concentration of blood metabolites. The AWM-fed calves had a lower rectal temperature and fever days. Moreover, the MR-fed calves had lower beta-hydroxybutyrate concentration and a higher incidence of diarrhea. The fecal bacterial community of diarrheic calves showed dissimilarity among the AWM and the other treatments. At the compositional level, we observed a higher abundance of Fusobacterium and Ruminococcus genera (AWM), Prevotella (WM), and Lactobacillus (MR). In the AWM and MR diarrheic calves' feces, we also observed some beneficial bacterial genera. The performance and incidence of diarrhea of dairy calves were influenced by the liquid diet consumed and the bacterial composition of diarrhea.