{
  "abstract": "Neonatal calf diarrhea caused by intestinal microbial dysbiosis severely restricts rearing efficiency, and fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) emerges as a promising antibiotic-free strategy for regulating gut homeostasis. Nevertheless, to the best of our knowledge, the effects of colostrum-period FMT and the functional differences between colonic and colostrum delivery routes remain poorly characterized in pre-weaned dairy calves. We hypothesized that colostrum-period FMT would accelerate gut microbiota maturation, improve immune status and reduce diarrhea incidence in pre-weaned calves, with delivery-route-dependent effects. This study aimed to investigate how two colostrum-phase FMT delivery routes shape growth performance, serum immune profiles and gut microbiota in neonatal Holstein calves. Sixty newborn calves were randomly assigned to three groups (n = 20 per group): control (no FMT), colon-FMT (colonic perfusion), and colostrum-FMT (FMT mixed with colostrum). Donor feces were homogenized with sterile saline at a 1:9 ratio for FMT suspension preparation, and the trial lasted 56 days. For growth performance, the colon-FMT calves exhibited significantly higher average daily gain from D29 to D56 (p < 0.05). In terms of intestinal health, the colostrum-FMT group exhibited lower diarrhea incidence during D15-28 (p < 0.05) but markedly higher diarrhea rates during D29-56 (p < 0.01). For serum immunity, colon-FMT calves had elevated serum IgG at D14 (p < 0.05). At D56, the concentrations of IL-2 (p < 0.01) and IL-4 (p = 0.05) were significantly lower in the colostrum-FMT group than the colon-FMT group; no intergroup differences were detected for other serum cytokines and immunoglobulins. 16S rRNA gene sequencing of D28 fecal samples revealed that the colon-FMT group possessed a significantly higher relative abundance of Lactobacillus compared with the other two treatments (p < 0.05). Collectively, colonic FMT is associated with remodeling intestinal microbiota by enriching beneficial Lactobacillus, improved late-stage growth and sustained long-term intestinal health in pre-weaned calves, whereas colostrum-mediated FMT only provides transient protection against early diarrhea.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "College of Animal Science, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot 010018, China."
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 7,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Jingkun Zhang"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Yaning Sun"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Xintong Li"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Duo You"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Zhanhe Zhang",
      "orcid": "0009-0006-9971-5824"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Ming Xu",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-0816-7046"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Donglin Wu",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-2194-5129"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/48dgefeq48j45.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.3390/ani16193088",
  "fulltext_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13663452",
  "id": "48dgefeq48j45",
  "issns": [
    "2076-2615"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42883057",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "1103|Animal Nutrition and Physiology"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7215045684",
  "pdf_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13663452?pdf=render",
  "pmcid": "PMC13663452",
  "pmid": "42883057",
  "published": "2026-10-01",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/48dgefeq48j45.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:19:00Z",
      "native_id": "MED:42883057",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42883057"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "openalex:1103|Animal Nutrition and Physiology",
      "subfield": "zoology-behaviour"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Effects of Colostrum-Period Fecal Microbiota Transplantation on Growth Performance, Immune Function and Gut Microbiota in Pre-Weaned Calves.",
  "title_text": "Effects of Colostrum-Period Fecal Microbiota Transplantation on Growth Performance, Immune Function and Gut Microbiota in Pre-Weaned Calves.",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:19:00Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/48dgefeq48j45",
  "venue": "Animals : an open access journal from MDPI",
  "versions": []
}