Campus Units

Animal Science

Document Type

Article

Publication Version

Published Version

Publication Date

2020

Journal or Book Title

Biomolecules

Volume

10

Issue

8

First Page

1179

DOI

10.3390/biom10081179

Abstract

The proper development of the early gastrointestinal tract (GIT) microbiota is critical for newborn ruminants. This microbiota is susceptible to modification by diverse external factors (such as diet) that can lead to long-lasting results when occurring in young ruminants. Dietary supplementation with prebiotics, ingredients nondigestible and nonabsorbable by the host that stimulate the growth of beneficial GIT bacteria, has been applied worldwide as a potential approach in order to improve ruminant health and production yields. However, how prebiotics affect the GIT microbiota during ruminants’ early life is still poorly understood. We investigated the effect of milk supplementation with a combination of two well-known prebiotics, fructooligosaccharides (FOS) from sugar beet and garlic residues (all together named as “additive”), exerted on preweaned lamb growth and the composition of their fecal microbiota, by using 16S rRNA gene amplicon high-throughput sequencing. The results showed a significant increase in the mean daily weight gain of lambs fed with the additive. Lamb fecal microbiota was also influenced by the additive intake, as additive-diet lambs showed lower bacterial diversity and were significantly more abundant in Bifidobacterium, Enterococcus, Lactobacillus and Veillonella. These bacteria have been previously reported to confer beneficial properties to the ruminant, including promotion of growth and health status, and our results showed that they were strongly linked to the additive intake and the increased weight gain of lambs. This study points out the combination of FOS from sugar beet and garlic residues as a potential prebiotic to be used in young ruminants’ nutrition in order to improve production yields.

Comments

This article is published as Quijada, Narciso M., Raúl Bodas, Jose M. Lorenzo, Stephan Schmitz-Esser, David Rodríguez-Lázaro, and Marta Hernández. "Dietary Supplementation with Sugar Beet Fructooligosaccharides and Garlic Residues Promotes Growth of Beneficial Bacteria and Increases Weight Gain in Neonatal Lambs." Biomolecules 10, no. 8 (2020): 1179. doi: 10.3390/biom10081179.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Copyright Owner

The Authors

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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