{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,3]],"date-time":"2026-10-03T04:53:22Z","timestamp":1791003202612,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":42,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"19","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,1]],"date-time":"2026-10-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790812800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Natural Science Foundation of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region","award":["2023LHMS03048"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2023LHMS03048"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Animals"],"abstract":"<jats:p>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 &lt; 0.05). In terms of intestinal health, the colostrum-FMT group exhibited lower diarrhea incidence during D15-28 (p &lt; 0.05) but markedly higher diarrhea rates during D29-56 (p &lt; 0.01). For serum immunity, colon-FMT calves had elevated serum IgG at D14 (p &lt; 0.05). At D56, the concentrations of IL-2 (p &lt; 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 &lt; 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.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ani16193088","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,1]],"date-time":"2026-10-01T08:19:08Z","timestamp":1790842748000},"page":"3088","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Effects of Colostrum-Period Fecal Microbiota Transplantation on Growth Performance, Immune Function and Gut Microbiota in Pre-Weaned Calves"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Jingkun","family":"Zhang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot 010018, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"project-administration","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Yaning","family":"Sun","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot 010018, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"project-administration","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Xintong","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot 010018, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"validation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"project-administration","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Duo","family":"You","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot 010018, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"validation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"project-administration","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0006-9971-5824","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Zhanhe","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot 010018, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"project-administration","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0816-7046","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ming","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot 010018, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"funding-acquisition","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"project-administration","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2194-5129","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Donglin","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot 010018, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"project-administration","vocabulary":"credit"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1174","DOI":"10.1136\/gutjnl-2020-323071","article-title":"Gut Microbiota-derived Metabolites as Central Regulators in Metabolic Disorders","volume":"70","author":"Agus","year":"2021","journal-title":"Gut"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Glowacki, R.W.P., and Martens, E.C. 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