Correction: Trzebiatowski et al. Prenatal Factors Influencing Calf Morbidity and Mortality in Dairy Cattle: A Systematic Review of the Literature (2000–2024). Animals 2025, 15, 1772

Abstract

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Error in Table

In the original publication [1], there was a mistake in Table 3 as published. When transferring data from the excel sheet to the manuscript, the addition of zinc–methionine and chrome–methionine was lost, and only methionine was reported. However, the addition of trace minerals is important for the interpretation of the results. The corrected version of Table 3 appears below.

Text Correction

There was an error in the original publication [1]. The effects of zinc–methionine and chrome–methionine were only mentioned as effects of methionine.

A correction has been made to the following sections: 3. Results and Discussion, 3.2. Nutrition of the Pregnant Cow, 3.2.2. Study Characteristics, Paragraphs 2 and 5.

The nutrition of dairy cows in mid-pregnancy is well known to play an important role in health and performance during pregnancy and in the subsequent lactation period, which is why various feeding concepts have been developed for this phase [75]. One part of the included studies focused on the effect of adding to the diet provitamins [54–56], rumen-protected essential amino acids [59–61], rumen-protected protein [62], betaine [63], choline [64], fat [65], essential fatty acids [66–68], zinc [57], chromium [58], magnesium butyrate [69], and selenium [70] on calf morbidity and mortality. The other part of the studies investigated the influence of diets negative in dietary cation–anion difference (DCAD) [71–73] and maternal energy supply [74] on calf health.

Studies that investigated the influence of nutrition in late pregnancy on immunoglobulin transfer to calves showed a significant positive effect of adding the trace element selenium to the feed for 56 days before calving compared to a control group without additives [70]. This is in line with the finding of the improved transfer of passive immunity due to supplementation of selenium to colostrum [80] and underlines the importance of an adequate provision of selenium. The addition of rumen-protected betaine (in the last 28 days of gestation) [63], soybean oil, and fish oil (in the last 21 days of gestation) [65] also led to a significantly higher immunoglobulin transfer than in control groups without additives. In a study by Wang et al. [60], the addition of rumen-protected essential amino acids methionine and/or lysine in the last 21 days before calving resulted in improved immunoglobulin transfer to the calves. Feed additives showed no effect on the transfer of immunoglobulins in calves in other studies [54–58,62,64,66–69]. Although these studies are all designed as clinical trials and therefore show a high level of evidence, there are still wide variations in the duration and quantity of supplements used. Moreover, colostrum quality differs even in animals of one breed [81]. Based on the available data, no general recommendation on nutritional supplementation can be given to improve passive transfer of immunity.

The authors state that the scientific conclusions are unaffected. This correction was approved by the Academic Editor. The original publication has also been updated.