Probiotic Supplementation Improves Lamb Performance when Transitioning to High Concentrate Diets
Abstract
Lamb ruminal function is integral to their post-weaning health and performance. Lambs are often fed a high concentrate diet to enhance growth, and while this strategy is common, issues can arise with ruminal acidosis from excess grain consumption, including reduced weight gain and increased mortality. We hypothesized that administering probiotics orally prior to the transition to concentrate feeds would improve lamb performance in the post-weaning period. To assess this, finewool lambs (n = 103; males: n = 47, females: n = 56) were weaned from their dams at approximately 100 days of age at an average body weight (BW) of 25.8 ±0.2 kg and placed in a feedlot. Lambs were assigned randomly to treatment of 0g (CON), 5g (TRT-5), or 10g (TRT-10) of an orally administered probiotic paste (ProBios, Menomonie, WI) containing live lactate producing bacteria. Lambs were limit fed for 9 days and gradually transitioned to ad libitum access to a high concentrate ration. For six weeks, body weight (BW), average daily gain (ADG) and fecal egg counts (FEC) were collected on a weekly basis. Lambs receiving TRT-10 were significantly heavier (P = 0.01) than TRT-5 and CON lambs (30.3±0.2 kg versus 29.9±0.2 kg and 29.6±0.2 kg, respectively). There was no significant effect of probiotic treatment on ADG (P = 0.17). Fecal egg counts were lower (P = 0.05) in lambs receiving TRT-10 compared to those receiving CON and TRT-5. Four incidences of mortality were recorded, one death was recorded during week two, two during week four, and one during week five. There was no significant treatment (P = 0.5) or sex (P = 0.8) effects on lamb mortality. These data suggest that probiotic supplementation may be an effective strategy to decrease detrimental effects of diet transition on feeder lambs and may increase lamb performance while transitioning to a high concentrate diet.
Subject
probiotic supplementationCitation
Whitsel, Whitney Lauren (2022). Probiotic Supplementation Improves Lamb Performance when Transitioning to High Concentrate Diets. Master's thesis, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /198617.