## 3 Results and Discussion  
### Blood Parameters and Growth Performance of the Newborn Calves  
The blood parameters and growth performance of newborn calves fed with milk replacer only (CON group) or supplemented with fermented MP (MP group) are shown in Table 1. There were no significant differences between the CON and MP groups in blood parameters at the beginning or at the end of the experiment. These results are in agreement with the results of [PERSON] et al. [7], who found no major differences in serum AST activity between the control, prebiotic, and probiotic dietary treatment groups at various points during an experiment on the feeding of calves. Similarly, [PERSON] et al. [33] found no substantial difference between probiotic and control groups of calves. Some of the probiotic LAB strains have been shown to produce only L-lactate [34]. Formation of D-lactate may have implications in calf diarrhoea because D-lactic acidosis is often present [35], and D-lactate is poorly metabolised by mammals [36].  
After 14 days of the present experiment, the CON14 and MP14 groups had gained weight by 15.1% and 15.7%, respectively, with no significant difference between the two groups. In our study, MP contained GOSs and viable counts of \(L\). _warm_ LUHS245. In other studies, researchers have shown that probiotics could increase the growth of ruminants, while the growth performance of calves could also be improved by the use of prebiotics,  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline
**Parameter** & **Day** & **CON** & **MP** & \(p\) **Day \(\times\) Treat. Int.** \\ \hline AST (\(\mu\)kat/L) & Baseline & 82.70 \(\pm\) 54.07 \({}^{\text{A;a}}\) & 95.10 \(\pm\) 31.23 \({}^{\text{A;a}}\) & \\  & 14 & 43.57 \(\pm\) 4.57 \({}^{\text{A;a}}\) & 55.57 \(\pm\) 27.58 \({}^{\text{A;a}}\) & 0.299 \\ \hline Lactates (mmol/L) & Baseline & 5.27 \(\pm\) 2.05 \({}^{\text{A;a}}\) & 4.83 \(\pm\) 0.94 \({}^{\text{A;a}}\) & \\  & 14 & 4.04 \(\pm\) 2.34 \({}^{\text{A;a}}\) & 2.69 \(\pm\) 1.91 \({}^{\text{A;a}}\) & 0.411 \\ \hline Growth performance & Baseline & 39.10 \(\pm\) 3.93 \({}^{\text{A;a}}\) & 39.70 \(\pm\) 3.77 \({}^{\text{A;a}}\) & \\ \cline{2-4}  & 14 & 45.00 \(\pm\) 5.27 \({}^{\text{B;a}}\) & 46.00 \(\pm\) 5.09 \({}^{\text{B;a}}\) & \\ \hline \end{tabular}  
* The data are presented as mean \(\pm\) standard error (\(\mu\) = 10/group). Baseline measurements were done on day 2 before the start of the feeding experiment. AST, aspartate aminotransferase; Treat. Int., treatment interaction. \({}^{\text{A;b}}\) different capitals indicate significant time-related differences (\(p\) < 0.05). \({}^{\text{A;b}}\) different letters indicate differences among treatments (\(p\) < 0.05).  
\end{table}
Table 1: Blood parameters and growth performance of calves fed with milk replacer only (CON group) or supplemented with fermented milk permeate (MP group).  
such as mannan oligosaccharidescharides, fructooligosaccharides, and galactosyl-lactose [6; 21]. However, previous studies of the impact of probiotics and prebiotics on the growth of calves have produced inconsistent results. The review of [PERSON] et al. [37] revealed that probiotic LAB improved body-weight gain in young calves. By contrast, other researchers have shown that the use of _Lactobacillus acidophilus_, _Lactobacillus plantarum_, or _Lactobacillus lactis_ did not influence calf growth [6]. [PERSON] et al. [38] showed that calf health and growth measurements were not influenced by prebiotic treatment because the calves in that study were all generally healthy. [PERSON] et al. [21] reported that prebiotics may not elicit any detectable change in body weight or other health measures when calves are primarily healthy.