Bovine fecal biomarkers of intestinal inflammatory process: Calprotectin and lactoferrin, a comparative study.

Fecal lactoferrin and fecal calprotectin have been proposed as biomarkers of intestinal inflammation in several animal species. The main objectives of this work were to validate an analytical procedure for the measurement of lactoferrin in calf feces, to study the correlation between lactoferrin and calprotectin concentrations, and to evaluate the influence of fecal water content in the determination of these proteins. This knowledge is essential for effectively using these biomarkers in young calves exposed to inflammatory gastrointestinal diseases.

Chlorine dioxide may be an alternative to acidification and chlorination for drinking water chemical disinfection in dairy beef bulls.

Alternative water disinfectants to chlorination need to be identified because its effectiveness is limited by water pH and potentially carcinogen by-products resulted from chlorination and organic compound reaction. The first study aimed to evaluate the effect of different drinking water chemical disinfection treatments on water quality, its potential hazard effects on animal health, water and feed consumption, and apparent total tract digestibility in dairy beef bulls fed high-concentrate diets. For 224 days, 24 Holstein bulls (176 ± 16.

Multiphase diets may improve feed efficiency in fattening crossbreed Holstein bulls: a retrospective simulation of the economic and environmental impact.

Beef industry needs alternative feeding strategies to enhance both economic and environmental sustainability. Among these strategies, adjusting the diet dynamically according to the change of nutritional requirements (multiphase diet) has demonstrated its economic and environmental benefits in pig production systems. Therefore, this retrospective study aims to assess, through simulation, the theoretical economic and environmental benefits of introducing a multiphase diet for crossbreed bulls feeding (one or more diet changes).

Validation of the fCAL turbo immunoturbidimetric assay for measurement of calprotectin in porcine and bovine fecal samples.

The concentration of calprotectin in feces is a well-studied marker of gastrointestinal inflammation in humans. However, little is known about fecal calprotectin in farm animals. In this work, we have validated an immunoturbidimetric method for fecal calprotectin (Bühlmann fCAL® turbo assay, Schönenbuch, Switzerland) in porcine and bovine fecal samples.