The Influence of Feeding with Colostrum and Colostrum Replacer on Major Blood Biomarkers and Growth Performance in Dairy Calves

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Bovine colostrum (BC) is known to exert immunomodulatory activity by stimulating mucosal immune responses as well as providing the passive transfer of immunoglobulins. Despite the evident role of BC-derived immunoglobulins for protection of the calves, the multifaceted BC activity on neonate calves could not be fully explained by passively acquired immunoglobulins. Therefore, it is critical to better understand the role of other, non-immunoglobulin-derived bioactive constituents on the growth and development of neonate calves. Our data demonstrated that colostrum administration is important for the growth performance of dairy calves as well as changes in major blood biomarkers. The timing of colostrum administration results in a decremental effect on the body mass growth in calves. ABSTRACT: Bovine colostrum (BC) is the first milk produced by lactating cows after parturition. BC is rich in various amino acids, proteins, and fats essential for the nutrition of the neonate calves. Despite the evident beneficial effect of BC on calves, the effect of BC on blood biomarkers is poorly understood. Calves that received BC showed significantly higher body mass at days 7 and 30 (38.54 kg and 43.42 kg, respectively) compared to the colostrum replacer group (p = 0.0064). BC induced greater quantities of blood neutrophils (0.27 × 10(9)/L) and monocytes (4.76 × 10(9)/L) in comparison to the colostrum replacer (0.08 and 0.06 × 10(9)/L, respectively) (p = 0.0001). Animals that received BC showed higher levels of total serum protein (59.16 g/L) and albumin (29.96 g/L) in comparison to the colostrum replacer group (44.34 g/L and 31.58 g/L, respectively). In addition, BC induced greater intestinal mucus production in the Wistar rat model. Collectively, these results demonstrate that BC is important for the growth of calves and that it provides a significant beneficial effect on morphological and biochemical blood parameters.