U.S. flagAn official website of the United States government
                    Here's how you know **Official websites use .gov**
                            
                            A **.gov** website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
 **Secure .gov websites use HTTPS**
                            
                            A **lock** (                            
                              A locked padlock                                                      
                            
                            ) or **https://** means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Menu Agricultural Research Service
						
                    U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
 Livestock Issues Research: Lubbock, TX
 close



    Research

                    Research Projects
                                    Publications
                                    Collaborations
                                    News
                People

                    Staff Listing
                                    Careers


        


                    NewsletterSearch small
                    Search
            
            ARS Home
                                About ARS
                                Contact Us




ARS Home Plains Area Lubbock, Texas Cropping Systems Research Laboratory Livestock Issues Research Research





- Sanchez, Nicole
- Food Animal Production (101)

Research Project: **Location:
                            Livestock Issues Research** Project Number: 3096-32000-009-004-S
                        
                        Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement Start Date: Jan 1, 2024
                        
                        End Date: Dec 31, 2025 **Objective:**
                        
                        Specific Objective: of these additional studies will be to evaluate our liver abscess model in beef x dairy cross calves and to evaluate the use of several non-antimicrobial feed supplements as a means to reduce and/or prevent the development of liver abscesses in a controlled environment. Livers from these studies will be collected and all abscesses will be cultured for Fusobacterium, Trueperella, and Salmonella spp.
Development of an experimental model to study liver abscesses in cattle and the use of nutritional supplements to reduce the incidence and severity. **Approach:**
                        
                        Forty weaned Holstein steer calves from a commercial calf ranch or dairy operation in the Texas Panhandle will be randomly assigned to 1 of 3 treatments: 1) Control (n=13), 2) acidotic diet (n=13), or 3) acidotic diet + intraruminal inoculation with F. necrophorum (n=14). The acidotic diet will be comprised of fine ground corn (66%), distillers corn with solubles (25%), cottonseed hulls (5%), and fine ground alfalfa (4%). Upon arrival, an intraruminal bolus that monitors pH will be inserted and calves will be placed in individual pens in an indoor climate-controlled facility and allowed to acclimate for 7 d to a
commercial, basic starter ration. On d 0, calves in treatments 2 and 3 will undergo a diet change. Calves will be fed the acidotic diet for 3 days, control diet for 2 days, and the cycle will be repeated 3 times. Boluses monitoring real-time pH will be evaluated prior to the morning feeding, and if a calf reaches a ruminal pH of less than 4.5 for greater than 4 h, the calf will be switched back to a control diet. Following the ration change cycles, the calves in treatment 3 will be intra-ruminally administered with F. necrophorum. Blood will be collected prior to the ration change and every 2 weeks until harvest (43 days
post-ration changes). Blood will be used to quantify complete blood cell counts and serum chemistry profiles. Upon harvest, calves will be evaluated for liver abscesses and/or scarring along with an evaluation of the rumen, lungs, and colon.
Abscesses will be cultured for Fusobacterium, Trueperella, and Salmonella spp. Histopathology samples will be collected from the rumen to evaluate the differences in architectural features between the treatments. Finally, F. necrophorum will be cultured from ruminal epithelial tissue and colon tissue.


Return to top


Connect with ARS Sign up


ARS Home
                            USDA.gov
                            Plain Writing
                            Policies & Links
                            Civil Rights Statements
                            FOIA
                            Accessibility Statement
                            Privacy Policy
                            Non-Discrimination Statement
                            Quality of Information
                            USA.gov
                            WhiteHouse.gov