Novel Beef: Evaluating the Impacts of Wine Supplemented Cattle Feed on Animal Temperament, Weight Gain, and Fecal E. coli Antimicrobial Resistance Patterns

Background: In vitro studies have shown that wine can reduce food borne pathogen growth while not significantly impacting viability of probiotic organisms. This study will evaluate the in vivo impacts of wine supplemented cattle feed on cattle temperament, weight gains, Escherichia coli loads and E. coli antimicrobial resistance patterns. Methods: 69 Angus-X cattle were randomly separated into four groups (n=18, 17, 17, 17) and fed 148-day diets: the treatment diet contained 7% wine and the control 7% water. Cattle were evaluated 5 times during the feeding; at each event, weights and temperament (determined via chute exit speed) were recorded, and fecal samples were gathered. E. coli (n=2,042) were isolated from fecal samples on mFc+BCIG plates containing either Ampicillin (4µg/ml), Tetracycline (4µg/ml) or without antibiotic. Plates containing E. coli capable of growth were evaluated, and the global Bacterial diversity was evaluated via bacterial tag-encoded FLX amplicon pyrosequencing. Results: The Average Daily Gains/ Wet Matter Intake of cattle shifted over the feeding period (p=<0.001) with cattle fed wine supplemented feed having a greater ADG/WMI than the control groups (p=0.094). All cattle become more flighty over the study (p=<0.001), with the wine-fed cattle being more flighty than the control group (p=0.0189). E. coli numbers between pens shifted during the feeding period (p=0.009) although the shifts between pens did not change (p=0.7277). The ratio of plates presenting E. coli capable of growth around Ampicillin or Tetracycline were not found to change over the feeding period (p=0.8087 and 0.8818) and was also not found to change between cattle (p=0.2597 and 0.1184). Runimoccaceae, Clostridiaceae, and Bacteroidaceae dominated the fecal microbiome (28.0, 16.6, 13.4% respectfully). Conclusion: Wine supplemented feed appears to shift the ADG/WMI and temperament of cattle compared to the control group; however, this feed regimen did not alter their E. coli loads or resistance patterns. Current work aims to evaluate E. coli diversity via Rep-PCR as well as antimicrobial resistance phenotypes via Minimum Inhibitory Concentration studies. Future work should aim to evaluate the loads of E. coli O157 variants within preserved fecal samples.