Gut Microbiome

On Thursday I was able to go to Fair Oaks farm where they keep around 4,000 dairy cattle.  I was amazed  at the cleanliness and almost odorless farm compared to all of the other farms I have been at.  It is incredible to see how such a large farm can have such high hygiene and be so environmentally friendly through its recycling of manure.

As we were waiting for some calves to be born I started thinking about the micro biome.  I was thinking about the way calves go from such a sterile environment to one full of bacteria as they are born.  Bacteria contribute to the metabolism of the host, sort of like an external metabolic organ.  The micro biome is what helps digestion and creates heat in the rumen, for calves the milk is digested in their small intestine (until they fully develop their rumen).

Newborn calves are initially exposed to a wide variety of microbes as they are born through the birth canal.  The procedure we did two days ago on the newborn bull calf in this experiment was to place the calf in the small tub as it is born then the mother is allowed to lick the calf while her udders are sterilized to obtain colostrum and measure it to see adequate levels of IGG, immunoglobulins, to be at least 50 g/l which in the brix scale is around 21-22%. Blood is collected from the tail vein for the cow and through the jugular for the calf before feeding. We feed the newborn calf two liters for the first feeding and one liter and a half two hours later.


Picture Below:  I am just including this picture to show how we feed the calves.  However our bull calf would not have direct contact with other calves like this calf did.

Video Below:  This is an example of how a mother will clean her calf and stimulate it to move.  It is also exposing the calf to more of her own microbes.