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ARS Home » Plains Area » Clay Center, Nebraska » U.S. Meat Animal Research Center » Animal Health Genomics » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #422820
Research Project: Strategies to Control Respiratory Diseases of Cattle

Location: Animal Health Genomics

Title: Probiotics may decrease inflammation caused by lipopolysaccharide treatment as measured by haptoglobin concentration

Author
item Chitko-Mckown, Carol
item McDaneld, Tara
item Kuehn, Larry
item BRYAN, KEITH - Novonesis

Submitted to: Journal of Immunology
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/28/2025
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: We have previously shown that feeding dairy calves milk replacer containing probiotics resulted in a change in the respiratory microbiome. In our current study, we hypothesize that including probiotics in the feed of newly weaned beef steers will improve productivity and immune status when responding to an immunological challenge. Three hundred sixty spring-born steers were randomly placed into one of two feeding treatments 14 days after arriving at the feedlot. Treatments were a traditional post-weaning diet (control) and the same diet plus a probiotic fed at 50mg/head/day (BOVAMINE Defend Plus). Six weeks post-weaning, half of each treatment group was treated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS; 0.5ug/kg) to mimic a bacterial infection (vs. a saline sham injection) and blood was collected for haptoglobin (HPT) testing (D0). Two days later, animals were again bled to test HPT (D2) concentrations (ELISA) in reaction to LPS and sham treatments. In preliminary analyses, Control Fed +LPS had an average HPT concentration increase of 771ng/ml at D2 as compared to Control Fed sham-treated animals with a 369 ng/ml increase in HPT. Probiotic Fed +LPS had a 301 ng/ml increase in HPT concentration at D2 as compared to Probiotic Fed sham-treated with a 110 ng/ml increase in HPT at D2. Haptoglobin concentrations in control-fed cattle increase nearly twice as much after LPS treatment than in probiotic-fed cattle. Probiotics may modulate inflammation caused by pathogenic bacteria.