~ 215 ~ The Pharma Innovation Journal 2018; 7(7): 215-217 ISSN (E): 2277- 7695 ISSN (P): 2349-8242 NAAS Rating: 5.03 TPI 2018; 7(7): 215-217 © 2018 TPI www.thepharmajournal.com Received: 21-05-2018 Accepted: 23-06-2018 Anjali Khare ICAR-National dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana, India Veena Mani ICAR-National dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana, India Gaurav Thorat ICAR-National dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana, India Sachin Kumar ICAR-National dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana, India Correspondence Veena Mani ICAR-National dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana, India Effect of prebiotic supplementation on faecal characteristic on buffalo calves Anjali Khare, Veena Mani, Gaurav Thorat and Sachin Kumar Abstract Ban on the antibiotic as a growth promoter European Union since January 1, 2006 prebiotic come in existence. Twenty eight Murrah buffalo calves were randomly selected and divided into four groups. All the four groups were fed as per ICAR (2013) feeding schedule except that these were additionally supplemented with 0, 8, 16 and 24 g/d chicory root powder (in the four respective groups i. e. CON, T1, T2 T3) for 90 days. Results showed that there is significant (p<0.05) decrease in Fecal, ammonia and faecal pH on supplementation. Faecal lactate is significantly increase in treatment group. Thus, it may be concluded that the supplementation of chicory root powder (8, 16 and 24g) may be useful for enhancing health status and performance of calves. As there is no significant difference observe in the treatment group in 8g and 16 g faecal score, faecal pH, so we can conclude that 8gm of chicory root powder beneficial for calves. Keywords: prebiotic, calf, faecal pH, faecal lactate Introduction Major portion of India’s economy is based on agriculture and animal husbandry in which milk production plays a vital role. India ranks first in milk production in the world. Milk production in India was around 155 million tonnes in 2015-16 according to NDDB and buffaloes contribute 56% the nation’s milk production (FAO, 2004) [20] . The rural people are mostly dependent on agriculture for their livelihood and livestock provides additional support to them. For a lucrative dairy industry, calves, being future replacement stock of the herd, are an important asset and key determinants of the economic future of dairy farm. Hence, healthy young stock is indispensable for a successful and profitable dairy enterprise. But, calf health is a very critical factor affecting the welfare and economics of young stock, dairy and rearing enterprises. The maintenance of health and growth rate of calves is very important especially during first 2 to 3 months of age. It also decides the economics of replacement stock rearing and has immense bearing on early maturity and production of the animals (Ghosh and Mehla, 2012) [6] . Calf diarrhoea, in particular, is a significant health issue in dairy rearing enterprises, with 38% of producers reporting it to be a significant problem (Morrison et al., 2010) [12] . Diarrhoea has been related to an increase of Coliform bacteria counts in the intestines and a decrease in Lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria counts (Ouwehand et al., 2002) [14] . The increase of Coliform bacteria in the intestines may produce putrefactive substances and harm the host (Fujisawa et al., 2010) [5] . As a result, gut microbiota are important to the health maintenance and development of the host (Ng et al. 2009; Rowland et al. 2010) [17] . The development of antimicrobial resistance and transference of antibiotic resistance genes from animal to human microbiota (Salyers et al. 2004) [18] and ban on the use of antibiotics as growth promoters in the European Union since January 1, 2006 (EC, 2001) urged the scientist to find a suitable alternatives to antibiotics. To overcome these problems and to replace the use of antibiotics prebiotics came up as a good adjuvant to promote the health (Heinrich et al. 2003) [8] . Prebiotic supplementation has gained interest in recent years as a method to improve gastrointestinal health in livestock. It has been provided that prebiotic supplementation may be most effective in times of stress or increased pathogen exposure throughout the calf’s lifetime (Quirk et al. 2010) [15] . Inulin is one of the fructans, naturally occurring in many plants, mostly extracted from chicory root (Cichorium Intybus) or Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus). It is composed of oligo and polysaccharides, which give inulin its unique prebiotic properties (Samanta et al. 2013) [19] .