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ARS Home » Plains Area » Lubbock, Texas » Cropping Systems Research Laboratory » Livestock Issues Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #250876

Title: Yeast supplementation alters the health status of receiving cattle

Author
item Carroll, Jeffery - Jeff Carroll
item Collier, Chad
item Hulbert, Lindsey
item CORLEY, JIMMIE - Lesaffre Yeast
item ESTEFAN, ANTONIO - Lesaffre Yeast
item FINCK, DEREK - Texas Tech University
item JOHNSON, BRAD - Texas Tech University

Submitted to: Journal of Animal Science Supplement
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/11/2010
Publication Date: 10/11/2010
Citation: Carroll, J.A., Collier, C.T., Hulbert, L.E., Corley, J., Estefan, A., Finck, D., Johnson, B. 2010. Yeast supplementation alters the health status of receiving cattle [abstract]. 2010 American Society of Animal Science Meeting, July 11-15, 2010, Denver, CO. Journal of Animal Science. 88(E-Supplement 2):T24.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Our objective was to determine if supplementation of yeast products during the receiving phase would improve the health status of beef calves prior to and following a low-dose LPS (0.25 micrograms/kg BW) challenge. Twenty-four crossbred calves (203 ± 1.45 kg BW) were blocked by BW and assigned to 1 of 4 dietary treatments for 38 d prior to LPS exposure: 1) Control (Cont) calves fed an 83% concentrate diet; 2) Live Yeast (LY), calves fed the control diet with the addition of a LY; 3) Yeast Cell Wall (YCW), calves fed the control diet with the addition of a YCW product; and 4) LY plus YCW (LY/YCW). Calves on a common ration were group penned, and diets containing the yeast products were formulated to deliver 5 g/hd/d of either LY or YCW or 10 g/hd/d of the LY/YCW combination. On d38, calves were fitted with jugular catheters and indwelling rectal probes, and moved to individual stanchions. On d39, blood samples were collected at 30-min intervals from -2 to 8 h post-LPS and then at 24 h relative to LPS challenge at time 0. Rectal temperatures (RT) were collected at 1-min intervals from -24 to 24 h post-LPS challenge. During the entire trial, basal RT prior to LPS tended (P less than or equal to 0.06) to differ among groups with Cont calves having higher RT compared to LY/YCW (P less than or equal to 0.01) and LY (P less than or equal to 0.04) calves. After the LPS challenge, an interaction (P less than or equal to 0.05) was observed such that RT remained higher in the Cont calves compared to all other groups. By 10 h post-LPS, RT were still greater (P less than or equal to 0.05) in Cont calves compared to all other calves, and remained numerically higher throughout the study. Serum cortisol increased in all groups post-LPS with peak concentrations observed at 1 h. At 1 h post-LPS, serum cortisol concentrations were 26.5 ng/mL greater (P less than or equal to 0.04) in Cont calves compared to LY/YCW calves. An interaction (P less than or equal to 0.01) was observed for serum interferon-gamma (IFN) such that IFN concentrations tended (P less than or equal to 0.06) to be greater in Cont calves compared to YCW calves prior to LPS exposure. These data indicate that supplementing the diet of receiving beef cattle with yeast products may improve their health during the early phase of the feedlot period, thus allowing for enhanced performance.