Post-partum Inflammation reduces milk production in dairy cows

F. Robert (1) , Philippe Faverdin (2)

1 R&D department
2 PEGASE - Physiologie, Environnement et Génétique pour l'Animal et les Systèmes d'Elevage [Rennes]

More and more evidences show that inflammation induces a partition of nutrients towards immune processes, decreasing the production of farm animals. Furthermore, acute phases can decrease feed intake that, in turn, could affect the production and health. In dairy cows, inflammation increases after parturition and some experiments show that this inflammation process can be negatively linked to milk production. Three trials were conducted on dairy cows in order to evaluate the relationship between milk production and inflammation using the plasmatic level of haptoglobin. The first trial was conducted at INRA Méjusseaume, 23 Holstein dairy cows have been blood sampled during the dry period, 7, 28 and 56 days after calving. Haptoglobin, hydroperoxydes (dROM test) and biological antioxidant activity (BAP test) have been measured at each period. In order to validate the first observations, 2 following trials have been performed in 2 commercial farms; blood was taken from 40 cows in each farm at 7 and 21 days after calving. The trial 1 shows that haptoglobin increases after calving; the level at day 7 post-calving being significantly higher than the other periods. The oxidative stress index (OSI), evaluated by the ratio dROM/BAP, begins to increase the last month of gestation, remains high the week following calving and decrease thereafter. The haptoglobin level measured at 7 days after calving showed significant negative correlation with milk production during the first 4 weeks post calving in all the 3 farms. The Pearson correlations are moderate but homogenous (between 0.36 and 0.4). None of the other sampling dates showed any correlation with milk production. Inflammation occurring the days following calving has a negative impact on milk production at least during 4 weeks. Any action targeting the inflammation process the days following calving could have benefit on milk production and cows’ health.

Domaines: Biologie animale

F. Robert, Philippe Faverdin. Post-partum Inflammation reduces milk production in dairy cows. 65. Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Animal Science (EAAP), Aug 2014, Copenhague, Denmark. Wageningen Academic Publishers, Annual Meeting of the European Association for Animal Production, 20, 2014, Annual Meeting of the European Association for Animal Production. ⟨hal-01210677⟩