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Immunity, rumen metagenomics, ruminal variables, and growth performance of calves fed milk with sage (Salvia officinalis) essential oil

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Abstract

The study aimed to determine the effect of sage (Salvia officinalis) essential oil (EO) to the drinking milk until the weaning stage of Holstein calves on the growth performance, body measurements, ruminal fermentation, rumen metagenomic profile, proinflammatory cytokines [interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α), and IL-1β], immune globulins (IgG, IgM, and IgE), and acute phase proteins (serum amyloid-A, SAA). In the study, 24 Holstein calves were divided into three groups as 0 μL (SAG0; control group), 100 μL (SAG100), or 200 μL (SAG200) of sage EO to the milk per calf per day. The addition of sage EO to the milk linearly increased the live weight, feed intake, and daily body weight gain (P < 0.05). The addition of sage EO to the milk in calves linearly increased serum IgG titter dose dependently (P < 0.05), but serum IgM and IgE titters did not change (P > 0.05). The concentrations of serum TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 in the weaned calves linearly decreased by the sage aromatic oil addition to the milk (P < 0.05). The serum SAA concentrations of calves did not differ among the control and treatment groups (P > 0.05). Probiotic Bifidobacterium and Acidaminococcus genus in calf rumen fluid can increase by sage EO addition to milk. The relative abundance of genus Prevotella, Prevotellaceae_NK3B31_group, and Prevotella_9 increase with sage EO. The ruminal ammonia-nitrogen (NH3-N) concentration and total short chain fatty acid (T-SCFA) molarity decreased by sage EO addition to the drinking milk (P < 0.05). The molarities of iso butyric (IBA) and iso valeric acids (IVA) in rumen fluid of the weaned calves linearly reduced by the increasing sage EO dose to the milk (P < 0.05). The butyric acid (BA) and iso caproic acid (ICA) molarities in rumen fluid did not change by the sage EO addition (P > 0.05). Consequently, it has been observed that sage EO addition to the milk of calves positively affected the immune system variables and performance parameters. Sage EO addition of calves before weaning may support the immune system in the eventual immunosuppression at the weaning stage.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to restrictions (e.g., containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants).

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Research Fund of Erciyes University (Kayseri, Türkiye) Project ID: TDK-2022-11515. This study is summarized from Gönül PİRCİ's PhD thesis with the same name in the title. We would like to thank Erciyes University Scientific Research Projects Unit and Research Deanery.

Funding

This study was supported by the Research Fund of Erciyes University (Kayseri, Türkiye) with Project ID TDK-2022-11515.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Animal Nutrition and Nutritional Diseases, Erciyes University, 38280, Kayseri, Türkiye

    Kanber Kara

  2. Erciyes University, Research Deanery, Kara Research Group, Kayseri, Türkiye

    Kanber Kara & Gönül Pirci

  3. Health Sciences Institute, Department of Animal Nutrition and Nutritional Diseases, Erciyes University, 38280, Kayseri, Türkiye

    Gönül Pirci

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  1. Kanber Kara
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Contributions

Conceptualization: KK; methodology: KK, GP; formal analysis and investigation: KK, GP; writing-original draft preparation: KK; writing-review and editing: KK; resources: KK; supervision: KK. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Kanber Kara or Gönül Pirci.

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The authors confirm that the ethical policies of the journal, as noted on the journal’s author guidelines page, have been adhered to, and the appropriate ethical review committee approval was received. The authors confirm that they followed Erciyes University standards to protect animals for scientific purposes and feed legislation. This study was approved (approval date and number: 02.02.2022 and 22/029) by the Local Ethics Committee for Animal Experiments of Erciyes University, Province of Kayseri, Türkiye.

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Highlights

• Sage EO has a positive effect on body weight, daily live weight gain, and feed intake values of calves.

• Addition of sage EO to calf milk shows immune modulatory effect by reducing the concentrations of serum TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6.

• Sage EO has a reducing effect on global warming by reducing protein utilization and nitrogen emissions by reducing ruminal NH3-N concentration. Besides, it can also reduce ruminal IBA and IVA molarity values, which are the end-products of ruminal protein metabolism.

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Kara, K., Pirci, G. Immunity, rumen metagenomics, ruminal variables, and growth performance of calves fed milk with sage (Salvia officinalis) essential oil. Trop Anim Health Prod 56, 27 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-023-03831-w

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