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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 #425631
Research Project: Strategies to Control Respiratory Diseases of Cattle

Location: Animal Health Genomics

Title: Haptoglobin concentration after lipopolysaccharide treatment in cattle fed diets with or without probiotics

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

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/30/2025
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: We have previously shown that haptoglobin (HPT) is an early indicator of respiratory disease in cattle. Furthermore, we have shown that intravenous or subcutaneous treatment of cattle with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) results in elevated concentrations of HPT in peripheral blood. In our current study, we hypothesize that including probiotics in the feed of newly weaned beef steers will affect the immune response to LPS as measured by HPT concentration in peripheral blood. 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 traditional post-weaning diet plus a commercial probiotic fed at 50mg/head/day (probiotic; BOVAMINE Defend Plus). After two or four weeks on the treatment diets, half of each treatment group was treated with LPS (0.5ug/kg) to mimic a bacterial infection, or with a saline sham injection, and peripheral blood was collected for haptoglobin (HPT) testing (D0). Two days later, peripheral blood was again obtained from animals to test HPT (D2) concentrations in reaction to LPS and sham treatments. Haptoglobin concentration was measured by ELISA. When all cattle were analyzed together, we found that Control Fed +LPS had an average HPT concentration increase of 24,137 ± 6914 ng/ml at D2 as compared to Control Fed sham-treated animals with a 3,500 ± 7021 ng/ml increase in HPT. Probiotic Fed +LPS had a 29,989 ± 6965 ng/ml increase in HPT concentration at D2 as compared to Probiotic Fed sham-treated with a 5,723 ± 7019 ng/ml increase in HPT at D2. Differences due to probiotic treatment and its interaction with LPS were not significant (P > .10). Probiotics may affect bovine immunity through pathways not captured in this study. Experiments are underway to measure changes in immune gene expression in peripheral blood leukocytes.