Age-stratified gut microbial changes in diarrheal calves: insights from 16S rRNA sequencing across early development.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Neonatal calf diarrhea (NCD) remains a leading cause of mortality in calves under 1 month, yet how gut microbial responses vary across developmental stages remains unexplored. This study investigates age-stratified microbiome dynamics during NCD to enable precision interventions.

Materials and methods

This study investigated 60 female Holstein calves (1, 21, and 30 days old) from a commercial dairy farm, equally divided between healthy and diarrheal groups based on standardized fecal scoring. Fecal samples were collected aseptically, flash-frozen, and processed for 16S rRNA gene sequencing (V3-V4 region) using Illumina NovaSeq. Bioinformatics analyses included DADA2 pipeline for ASV calling, SILVA 138 database for taxonomic annotation, ANCOM-BC2 for differential

SUBMITTER: Zhang Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12477723 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature