Background
The first month of life possess significant challenges for dairy calves due to high susceptibility to digestive diseases. The
Conclusions
These results indicated that the dietary addition of SRB in milk did not have an effect in health, immunity or performance of pre-weaned dairy calves.
Results
Overall, weight gain and fecal IgA concentrations were not affected by the dietary addition of SRB. The total number of calf-days classified as healthy or sick were not different between treatment groups. Similarly, the number of calf-days categorized as slightly affected, moderately sick, or severely sick did not differ between treatment groups. Time to event analyses indicated a tendency for a treatment effect in the time to the first moderate case of diarrhea (P = 0.08), as well as in the time to recovery from diarrhea (P = 0.052), favoring control calves. Conclusions: These results indicated that the dietary addition of SRB in milk did not have an effect in health, immunity or performance of pre-weaned dairy calves.