Effect of Dietary Fat and Minerals on the Incidence of Diarrhea and Rate of Passage of Diets in the Digestive Tract of Dairy Calves

Abstract

Addition of minerals simulating whey ash to the diet of young calves increased the over-all incidence of diarrhea, whereas animal tallow decreased its incidence in comparison to diets without added fat. The rather severe, apparently non-infectious, diarrhea subsided after several days even though the same amount of the respective diets was fed throughout the experiment, indicating a marked adaptation of the calves to the diarrheic diets. The minerals appeared to accelerate, whereas added fat tended to delay the rate of abomasal evacuation, as determined by radiography of 16 calves at 4 and 11 days of age. Average weight, pH and chemical composition of digestive tract contents in calves at 17 days of age were not related to fecal consistency at the time of slaughter.