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Absorption and Utilization of Volatile Fatty Acids by the Young Calf¹

Departments of Dairy and Poultry Science and Surgery and Medicine, Kansas State University, Manhattan

ABSTRACT

Absorption and utilization of volatile fatty acids (VFA) by young milk-fed calves were studied using sodium salts of ¹⁴C-labeled acids. In two trials acetate was administered orally; in four later trials, either acetate, propionate, or n-butyrate was administered into the extreme terminal portion of the ileum via a re-entrant fistula, followed several hours later by the same acid administered orally. Radioactivity was measured in expired CO₂, ileal digesta, feces and, in one experiment, blood.

Radioactivity in blood of a week-old calf peaked 90 min after acetate feeding. In two other acetate trials radioactivity in expired CO₂, peaked 3 hr after feeding. Peak activity in expired CO₂ appeared in 2 hr or less after ileal administration. Large amounts of the ¹⁴C were eliminated as ¹⁴CO₂, primarily during the first 8 hr.

Separate trials with propionate and butyrate indicated they also were efficiently absorbed and used.

In all trials, only small amounts of ¹⁴C appeared in feces, urine, or ileal digesta. These data indicate that the very young calf can absorb and metabolize VFA, whether the acids are produced in the forestomach or large intestine.

¹ Contribution no. 655, Department of Dairy and Poultry Science, and no. 19, Department of Surgery and Medicine, Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station, Manhattan.