Effects of alkaline mineral complex supplementation on production performance, serum variables, and liver transcriptome in calves

Cheng Guo; Xiaowei Wang; Dongwen Dai; Fanlin Kong; Shuo Wang; Xiaoge Sun; Shengli Li; Xiaofeng Xu; Lili Zhang

doi:10.3389/fvets.2023.1282055

Effects of alkaline mineral complex supplementation on production performance, serum variables, and liver transcriptome in calves

Front Vet Sci. 2023 Dec 6:10:1282055. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2023.1282055. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Cheng Guo^#^{1

2}, Xiaowei Wang^#¹, Dongwen Dai^{1

2}, Fanlin Kong², Shuo Wang², Xiaoge Sun², Shengli Li^{1

2}, Xiaofeng Xu¹, Lili Zhang¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Animal Science and Technology, Ningxia University, Yinchuan, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, Beijing Engineering Technology Research Center of Raw Milk Quality and Safety Control, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Calf diarrhea causes huge economic losses to livestock due to its high incidence and mortality rates. Alkaline mineral complex water is an alkaline solution containing silicon, sodium, potassium, zinc, and germanium, and has biological benefits and therapeutic effects. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of alkaline mineral complex water supplementation on the health of calves and to investigate the effect of Alkaline mineral complex water supplementation on neonatal calf serum variables and the liver transcriptome. Sixty Holstein calves (age 1.88 ± 0.85 days, weight 36.63 ± 3.34 kg) were selected and randomly divided into two groups: the T group (treatment group with alkaline mineral complex water supplemented during the experiment) and C group (control group without alkaline mineral complex water supplementation). Alkaline mineral complex water supplementation significantly increased the body weight for calves aged 60 d and average daily gain during the experimental period (1-60 d). In addition, Alkaline mineral complex water supplementation could significantly decrease the diarrhea rate for calves aged 16-30 d, enhance the T-AOC, IgG, IGF-1, and IGFBP-2 in concentrations. The results of KEGG enrichment analysis in transcriptomics indicate that Alkaline mineral complex water supplementation inhibited the target IL-1B gene of the NF-kappa B signaling pathway of liver. Alkaline mineral complex water supplementation decreased calf diarrhea and improved partial immune function, anti-inflammatory activity, antioxidant capacity, and health of calves. Alkaline mineral complex is a candidate to replace medicated feed additives. Alkaline mineral complex waterAlkaline mineral complex waterAlkaline mineral complex waterAlkaline mineral complex waterAlkaline mineral complex waterAlkaline mineral complex waterAlkaline mineral complex water.

Keywords: anti-inflammatory activity; antioxidant capacity; calf; liver transcriptome; stress.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was funded by Key Research and Development Project of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (2018BBF33006) and earmarked fund for CARS36.