Abstract
The objective of this study was to systematically investigate how sodium butyrate (SB) affects the gastrointestinal bacteria in newborn calves at different stages before weaning. Forty female newborn Holstein calves (4-day-old, 40 ± 5 kg of body weight) were randomly divided into four groups; each group was supplemented with four SB doses: 0, 15, 30, and 45 g/day (ten replicates) in SB0, SB15, SB30, and SB45 groups, respectively. SB was fed with milk replacer from day 4 to day 60. Rumen fluid and feces were collected on days 2, 14, 28, 42, and 60 for 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing. Data were analyzed in a complete randomized design and analyzed on the online platform of Majorbio Cloud Platform. The results showed that SB significantly increased the α-diversity in feces, especially Shannon and Chao indices in SB45 and SB30 at day 60 more than in SB15 (P < 0.05). Additionally, SB significantly enhanced Firmicutes growth from day 2 to 28 and also increased Bacteroides abundance from day 28 to 42 in rumen and feces (P < 0.05). SB also significantly inhibited Proteobacteria abundance in rumen and feces during the study period (P < 0.05). SB also promoted some potential beneficial bacterial abundance, including Prevotella, Lachnospiraceae, Clostridium, Ruminococcus, and Muribaculaceae (P < 0.05). Additionally, Escherichia-Shigella abundance at SB0 was significantly lower than in the other groups (P < 0.05). In conclusion, this study firstly reported a dynamic curve showing of the SB effects on bacteria in calves before weaning. This study provides valuable evidence for the development of the gastrointestinal tract of the calves in the early stage of the life. SB supplementation improved the gastrointestinal health by regulating the bacterial populations.
Key points
• The gastrointestinal tract of calves has been improved after the SB supplementation.
• Microbes were the vital influential factor in the development of calves.
• Intervention before weaning is an effective strategy for calf health.
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Data availability
The raw sequencing reads of this study have been deposited in the NCBI Sequence Read Archive (SRA) database under BioProject PRJNA874013.
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This research was partially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2022YFD1300703), the Key Research and Development Program of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (2021BEF02018), the Scientific Research Project for Major Achievements of The Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Program (ASTIP) (No.ASTIP-IAS07-1), and Beijing Innovation Consortium of Livestock Research System (BAIC05-2023).
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LM conceived of study, designed the study, wrote the paper, performed the research, and analyzed data; YY conceived of study, designed the study, wrote the paper, performed the research, and analyzed data; WL performed the research; DB conceived of study, funding acquisition. All authors reviewed the manuscript and read and approved the final manuscript.
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Ma, L., Yang, Y., Liu, W. et al. Sodium butyrate supplementation impacts the gastrointestinal bacteria of dairy calves before weaning. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 107, 3291–3304 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-023-12485-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-023-12485-5