| dc.description.abstract | Following cellulose, lignin is the most common polymer. Lignin is found in plants and belongs to the group of dietary fiber components.
Literature describes the following properties of lignin:
- Antioxidant
- Binds toxic material
- Increase of growth and improve of feed conversion
- Prevents and cures diarrhea
- Improves manure consistence
- Decrease of pathogens in intestinal tract
- Reduces ammonia level
It is aimed in this study to determine the effect of lignin in calf health. Accordingly, DigextraTM has been substituted in two groups of 70 calves, starting at the age of 14-21 days, giving the calves about 200 milligram DigextraTM per kilogram body weight, during 65 days. Special attention was given to manure: amount, colour and consistence. Subsequently respiratory disorders and use of antibiotics has been monitored. This study resulted in significant difference between the treatment and control group in percentage altered manure, including diarrhea (odds ratio 0.37; P < 0.05). Manure from calves in the treatment group was obviously of better quality, compared to manure from calves in the control group. The manure from the calves of the treatment group is clearly more dark and of a more ‘natural’ color in comparison to the manure of the control group. Six calves in the control group had blood in their manure, in comparison to none of the calves in the treatment group.
From day three till day thirtheen there was a large amount of calves with diarrhea. In both the control group as the treatment group animals got ill, but in the treatment group less animals got ill. In the control group 32 animals were treated with Biopect, five with Duoprim, one with Baytril and two with Halocur. In the treatment group thirteen animals were treated with Biopect and one with Duoprim.
Notable was that when there were changes in the feed of the calves the animals of the control group reacted much stronger. For example:
- Roughage provision
After the administration of roughage there first was a worsening of the manure consistency that later improved strongly. A lot of the problems weren’t seen after that any more. Because especially in the control group there were a lot of problems with this, it was best seen in this group.
- Stopping with the administration of skimmed milk powder in artificial milk
Mainly the animals of the control group got digestion problems like diarrhea and manure with a low consistency of this feeding change. The treatment group also fell back in the score for manure consistency, but clearly less than the control group.
When we asked to the opinion of the veal farmer he said the following:
“DigextraTM can be mixed well with the milk. Also the ingestion of DigextraTM by the calves is very good. The calves like DigextraTM, they even lick the mangers very clean. We would like to use it again, but then at all calves. We would choose to use it only the first seven weeks because it then has a clear working at the health status of the calves. The digestion is better, through which there are less problems with diarrhea. Also the pens are dryer, so the calves have dryer berths. Finally it is also nice that the stable smells fresher”. | |
