Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Animal Nutrition and Metabolism
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1502738
This article is part of the Research Topic Exploring Antinutritional Factors in Animal Feed: Implications for Health and Productivity View all 7 articles

Effects of Feeding Different Proportions of Steam-Flaked Corn-based Starter on Growth Performance, Immunity and Serum Metabolism of Pre-weaned Simmental Calves

Provisionally accepted
Yao Kangyu Yao Kangyu Yu Gao Yu Gao *Liang Yang Liang Yang *Min Yang Min Yang *Xiuyu Wu Xiuyu Wu *Xinyu Zhang Xinyu Zhang *Zhengke Lv Zhengke Lv *Shao Wei Shao Wei Yong Wei Yong Wei *Wanping Ren Wanping Ren *
  • Xinjiang Agricultural University, Ürümqi, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    To investigate the effects of feeding different proportions of steam-flaked corn-based starter on growth performance, immunocompetence, and serum metabolism in pre-weaned Simmental calves.Simmental bull calves were assigned to one of four treatments: control check (0% steam-flaked corn-based starter, CK), low-level (33% steam-flaked corn-based starter, SFC33), normal-level (66% steam-flaked corn-based starter, SFC66) and high-level(100% steam-flaked corn-based starter, SFC100). All calves were weighed and fasting blood samples were collected on day 0, 40, 80 and 120 of the experiment. The collected blood samples were centrifuged and properly frozen for subsequent determination of serum biochemical indices, hormonal indices and nutrient metabolism. The results showed that feeding 33% steam-flaked corn starter to pre-weaned Simmental calves resulted in the highest daily weight gain of 0.80 kg/d, which was 11.11%, 17.65% and 19.40% higher than that of CK, SFC66 and SFC100 groups, respectively (P > 0.05), significantly increased serum levels of globulin, total cholesterol, blood urea nitrogen, blood glucose, IgA, IgM, IgG, Growth Hormone (GH), Insulin (INS), and IGF-1 (P < 0.05). Differential metabolites were screened by differential metabolic pathways, in which there were 31 differential metabolites in the SFC33 group compared with the CK group, of which 27 were up-regulated and 4 were down-regulated. Key metabolites such as glycerophospholipid metabolism, linoleic acid metabolism, arachidonic acid metabolism, and several lysophosphatidyl molecules in the cholesterol metabolism pathway, 1-myristoyl-2-stearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine, and other key metabolites were up-regulated; Up-regulation of L-glutamine in phenylalanine metabolism, nucleotide metabolism, nitrogen metabolism, purine metabolism, and protein digestion and absorption pathways; Up-regulation of mannose in fructose and mannose metabolism. In summary, feeding 33% steam-flaked corn-based starter can improve the growth performance, enhance immunity, and improve sugars, lipids, and proteins metabolism of pre-weaned Simmental calves.

    Keywords: calf, growth performance, Immunity, Serum biochemical indicator, Metabolomics

    Received: 27 Sep 2024; Accepted: 26 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Kangyu, Gao, Yang, Yang, Wu, Zhang, Lv, Wei, Wei and Ren. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Yu Gao, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Ürümqi, China
    Liang Yang, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Ürümqi, China
    Min Yang, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Ürümqi, China
    Xiuyu Wu, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Ürümqi, China
    Xinyu Zhang, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Ürümqi, China
    Zhengke Lv, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Ürümqi, China
    Yong Wei, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Ürümqi, China
    Wanping Ren, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Ürümqi, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.