Heat stress (HS) annually causes huge losses to global dairy industry, including animal performance decrease, metabolic disorder and health problem. So far, physiological mechanisms underlying HS of dairy cows still remain elusive. To our best knowledge, this is the first attempt to elucidate the HS-induced metabolic disorders of dairy cows using integrated (1)H NMR and LC-MS-based metabolic study. The results not only provided potential diagnostic biomarkers for HS lactating dairy cows, but also significantly explored the related physiological mechanisms of metabolic pathway shifts induced by HS environment. This work offers comprehensive insights into the global metabolic alterations of dairy cows exposed to HS and provides a new perspective for further study.

Staphylococcus aureus is one of the main pathogens involved in dairy cow mastitis. Monitoring of antibiotic use would prove useful to assess the risk of Staph. aureus in raw milk. The objective of this work was to investigate the prevalence of Staph. aureus strais isolated from raw milk in northern China, and to characterize antimicrobial susceptibility of these strains and their key virulence genes. In total, 195 raw milk samples were collected from 195 dairy farms located in 4 cities of northern China from May to September 2015. Out of 195 samples, 54 (27.7%) were positive for Staph. aureus. Among these 54 samples, 54 strains of Staph. aureus were isolated, and 16 strains were identified as methicillin-resistant Staph. aureus. The strains exhibited high percentages of resistance to penicillin G (85.2%), ampicillin (79.6%), and erythromycin (46.3%). Moreover, 72% of the strains showed resistance to more than one antimicrobial agent. Overall, 63% of penicillin-resistant strains possessed the blaZ gene, and 60% of the erythromycin-resistant strains possessed erm(A), erm(B), erm(C), msr(A), or msr(B) genes with 8 different gene patterns. All isolates resistant to gentamicin, kanamycin, and oxacillin carried the aac6'-aph2", ant(4')-Ia, and mecA genes, respectively. Two tet(M)-positive isolates carried specific genes of the Tn916-Tn1545 transposon. The most predominant virulence genes were sec, sea, and pvl, which encode staphylococcal enterotoxins (sec and sea) and Panton-Valentine leukocidin, respectively. Thirty-two isolates (59.2%) harbored one or more virulence genes. The majority of Staph. aureus strains were multidrug resistant and carried multiple virulence genes, which may pose a risk to public health. Our data indicated that antimicrobial resistance of Staph. aureus was prevalent in dairy herds in northern China, and that antibiotics, especially penicillin G and ampicillin, to treat mastitis caused by Staph. aureus should be used with caution in northern China.

Heat stress (HS) damages the global dairy industry by reducing milk yields and quality, harming health, and damaging the reproduction of dairy cows, causing huge economic losses each year. However, an understanding of the physiological mechanism of HS lactating dairy cows remains elusive. Here, a metabolomics study using LC-MS and 1H NMR spectroscopy was performed to analyze the metabolomic differences in the milk between HS-free and HS dairy cows, and discover diagnostic biomarkers and changes in the metabolic pathway. A total of 53 discriminating metabolites were significantly up- or down-regulated in the HS group compared with the HS-free group (P < 0.05). These biomarkers were involved in pathways of carbohydrate, amino acid, lipid, and gut microbiome-derived metabolism. Comparing these potential biomarkers with previously identified HS candidate biomarkers in plasma, significant correlations between the levels of lactate, pyruvate, creatine, acetone, β-hydroxybutyrate, trimethylamine, oleic acid, linoleic acid, lysophosphatidylcholine 16:0, and phosphatidylcholine 42:2 in milk and plasma were found, indicating that the blood-milk barrier became leaky and the levels of these 10 biomarkers in milk can reflect HS-induced metabolomic alterations in blood. These novel findings can support more in-depth research to elucidate the milk-based changes in metabolic pathways in HS lactating dairy cows.

Milk fat globule membrane (MFGM) proteins have exhibited a relatively larger diversity than other milk fractions, and implicated health beneficial effects. Proteomic analysis of MFGM protein was mainly focused on human, bovine and goat in previous studies. Recently, there is an increasing demand for natural milk from minor dairy animals. Differences in protein components were not yet elucidated that required the integration of this information across multiple species. Thus, iTRAQ analysis of the proteins in MFGM fractions from Holstein, Jersey, yak, buffalo, goat, camel, horse, and human was performed in this study. A total of 520 proteins were identified and quantified in the MFGM fractions. The results were contributed to a comprehensive overview and discriminative profiling of the MFGM proteome across species.

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Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) and ochratoxin A (OTA) are mycotoxins commonly found in milk; however, their effects on intestinal epithelial cells have not been reported. In the present study, we show that AFM1 (0.12 and 12 μM) and OTA (0.2 and 20 μM) individually or collectively increased the paracellular flux of lucifer yellow and fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-dextrans (4 and 40 kDa) and decreased transepithelial electrical resistance values in differentiated Caco-2 cells after 48 h of exposure, indicating increased epithelial permeability. Immunoblotting and immunofluorescent analysis revealed that AFM1, OTA, and their combination decreased the expression levels of tight junction (TJ) proteins and disrupted their structures, namely, claudin-3, claudin-4, occludin, and zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1), and p44/42 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) partially involved in the mycotoxins-induced disruption of intestinal barrier. The effects of a combination of AFM1 and OTA on intestinal barrier function were more significant (p < 0.05) than those of AFM1 and OTA alone, yielding additive or synergistic effects. The additive or synergistic effects of AFM1 and OTA on intestinal barrier function might affect human health, especially in children, and toxin risks should be considered.

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The purposes of this study were to investigate the systemic and characteristic metabolites in the serum of dairy goats induced by aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) exposure and to further understand the endogenous metabolic alterations induced by it. A nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based metabonomic approach was used to analyse the metabolic alterations in dairy goats that were induced by low doses of AFB1 (50 µg/kg DM). We found that AFB1 exposure caused significant elevations of glucose, citrate, acetate, acetoacetate, betaine, and glycine yet caused reductions of lactate, ketone bodies (acetate, β-hydroxybutyrate), amino acids (citrulline, leucine/isoleucine, valine, creatine) and cell membrane structures (choline, lipoprotein, N-acetyl glycoproteins) in the serum. These data indicated that AFB1 caused endogenous metabolic changes in various metabolic pathways, including cell membrane-associated metabolism, the tricarboxylic acid cycle, glycolysis, lipids, and amino acid metabolism. These findings provide both a comprehensive insight into the metabolic aspects of AFB1-induced adverse effects on dairy goats and a method for monitoring dairy animals exposed to low doses of AFB1.