M.P. Saindane, P.T. Dhole, M.G. Mote and S.A. Daghe
Abstract
The study was carried out under two treatments, calves fed with Lactobacillus acidophilus milk as treatment group and calves fed with skim milk as control group. Calves fed with Lb. acidophilus milk observed the viable counts for faecal lactobacilli increased from 3.7 x 107 to 37.7 x 107 c.f.u./g in treatment group while 4.0 x 107 to 2.5 x 107 c.f.u./g in control group upto 8th week. However, after 8th week it was going to be decreasing and at 12th week it finally reached to 7.3 x 10 c.u.f./g in control group. Also the calves fed with L. acidophilus Milk indicated significant reduction in faecal coliform counts than calves fed with L. acidophilus Skim Milk significant for all weeks i.e. 0 to 12 weeks. Thus the results obtained suggested that the L.acidophilus Milk fed to young calves could increase the faecal lactobacilli counts with simultaneously reduction in faecal cliform counts of faeces of calves.