Evaluation of oral administration of chestnut tannins in preventing calf diarrhoea

Figures & data

Figure 1. The mean age, expressed in days, at the diarrhoea onset (TDE) for group C (n = 20 calves) and for group T (n = 20 calves). C: control group or group C; T: tannin-treated group or group T. Different letters denote a significant difference (a ≠ b: p < .05).

Figure 2. Days with diarrhoea as the relative percentage of the total observation period (60 days). C: control group or group C; T: tannin-treated group or group T. D: diarrhoea; ND: no diarrhoea; Chi-square test. Different letters denote a significant difference (a ≠ b: p = .001).

Table 1. The median, minimum (m) and maximum (M) values regarding the frequency of diarrhoeic episodes expressed as the number of diarrhoeic episodes per calf during the study period and the median faecal score for Group C and Group T.

	Group C	Group T
Frequency of diarrhoeic episode (num. diarrhoeic episodes/calves)	2 (m − 1 and M − 3)	1.5 (m − 1 and M − 4)
Median faecal score	2 (m − 2 and M − 3)	2 (m − 2 and M − 3)

Table 2. Results of the gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT) concentration expressed as LSmean ± standard error for group C (n = 20 calves) and group T (n = 20 calves).

		Time
U/L		0	7	14	21	28	35	42	49	56	SEM	TRT	T	TRTxT
GGT	C	419.86	280.57	124.14	72.93	46.93	30.79	20.86	20.71	18.21	31.180	0.009	0.001	0.75
	T	450.60	278.07	196.12	181.10	133.06	98.60	82.30	64.43	53.79

GGT: gamma-glutamyl transferase; C: control group or group C; T: tannin-treated group or group T; SEM: standard error of mean; TRT – effect of treatment; T – effect of sampling times; TRTxT – interaction between groups and times.

Table 3. Results of albumin (ALB) concentration expressed as LSmean ± standard error for group C (n = 20 calves) and group T (n = 20 calves).

		Time
U/L		0	7	14	21	28	35	42	49	56	SEM	TRT	T	TRTxT
ALB	C	2.7	2.71	3.04	3.08	3.18	3.10	3.16	3.03	3.11	0.105	0.04	0.001	0.001
	T	2.75	2.69	2.64	2.87	2.65	2.96	2.75	2.85	2.74

ALB: albumin; C: control group or group C; T: tannin-treated group or group T; SEM: standard error of mean; TRT – effect of treatment; T – effect of sampling times; TRTxT – interaction between groups and times.

Table 4. Results of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) concentration expressed as LSmean ± standard error for group C (n = 20 calves) and group T (n = 20 calves).

		Time
U/L		0	7	14	21	28	35	42	49	56	SEM	TRT	T	TRTxT
AST	C	46.53	33.40	32.60	34.26	37.04	41.61	49.01	48.76	47.83	7.688	0.001	0.348	0.001
	T	52.13	61.73	77.98	65.59	90.17	73.60	68.13	62.95	60.95

AST: aspartate aminotransferase; C: control group or group C; T: tannin-treated group or group T; SEM: standard error of mean; TRT – effect of treatment; T – effect of sampling times; TRTxT – interaction between groups and times.