Effects of maternal conjugated linoleic acid and essential fatty acid supply on the intestinal microbiota of calves

Conjugated linoleic acids (CLAs) can modulate the fatty acid composition in dairy cow milk, which is the most important nutrient source of neonatal calves. In turn, dietary fatty acids are known to influence the gut microbiota. This preliminary study aims to investigate the effects of maternal fatty acid supplementation during transition period with coconut oil (CON, control), CLA (Lutalin) or CLA+EFA (Lutalin + essential fatty acids - linseed oil; safflower oil) on physico-chemical characteristics of jejunal content and microbiota of 5 day-old calves. Our results show that maternal fatty acid supplementation alters fatty acid composition and microbial milieu of the intestinal content of neonatal calves.