Effect of different rumen-inert fatty acids supplemented with a dietary antioxidant on performance and antioxidative status of early-lactation cows

Abstract

The objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of diets supplemented with fatty acids of different degrees of saturation, in the absence or presence of an antioxidant (AOX; Agrado Plus, Novus International Inc., St. Charles, MO), on dairy cow lactation performance. Calcium salts of long-chain fatty acids were supplemented as a source of lower saturation fatty acid, and a palm acid product was supplemented as the higher saturation fatty acid source. Sixty early-lactation Chinese Holstein cows (100+/-23 d in milk) were randomly allocated to 4 dietary treatments in a 2 x 2 factorial design: (1) lower saturation fatty acid (LS), (2) LS and AOX, (3) higher saturation fatty acid (HS), and (4) HS and AOX. The Ca salts of long-chain fatty acids and palm acid product were supplied at 1.8 and 1.5% on a dry matter basis, respectively, to form isoenergetic diets. The AOX was added at 0.025% in the ration. The experiment lasted 9 wk, including 1 wk for adaptation. Lactation performance was recorded and milk was sampled and analyzed weekly. Blood samples were taken from the coccygeal vein to determine metabolism parameters on d 16, 36, and 56 during the experiment. Neither fatty acid type nor AOX supplementation showed a significant effect on dry matter intake during the study. Milk yield was lower in the LS-fed cows compared with the cows fed HS. Milk fat and milk protein concentrations were not affected by fatty acid type or AOX supplementation. Adding AOX increased the yield of milk in the LS-fed cows, but did not affect those fed HS. Activity of plasma superoxide dismutase was significantly lower, plasma glucose tended to be lower, and plasma malondialdehyde was higher in the LS-fed animals compared with those fed HS. Addition of AOX decreased both plasma nonesterified fatty acids and hydrogen peroxide contents and increased total antioxidant capacity across the fatty acid types. Plasma beta-hydroxybutyrate was not affected by fatty acid type or AOX treatment. Cows fed LS had higher cis-9C(18:1) and trans-10, cis-12C(18:2) in milk at the expense of C(18:0), whereas AOX addition increased milk cis-9C(18:1) at the expense of milk C(12:0), C(16:0), and trans-10, cis-12C(18:2). It is inferred that feeding LS resulted in inferior lactation performance, whereas addition of antioxidant partially alleviated these negative effects.

Colostrum supplementation with n-3 fatty acids and α-tocopherol alters plasma polyunsaturated fatty acid profile and decreases an indicator of oxidative stress in newborn calves

“…A future study should examine what products of n-3 FA metabolism may affect the oxidant balance after a one-time dose in colostrum as reported in the current study. Our observation of decreased RONS production by the n-3 FA in FFE may have further improved with the addition of 200 mg (334 IU) of α-tocopherol, which was included to protect n-3 FA from peroxidation (Wang et al, 2010). In our study, we observed decreased α-tocopherol concentrations in FFE calves during wk 1.…”

Effects of supplementation of flax meal and flax oil on mammary gene expression and activity of antioxidant enzymes in mammary tissue, plasma and erythrocytes of dairy cows

“…Moreover, Jacobs et al (2013) observed that C18:2cis-9,cis-12 and C18:3cis-9,cis-12,cis-15 FA reduced mRNA abundance of acetylcoenzyme A (CoA) carboxylase (ACACA), fatty acid synthase (FASN; trend at P ¼0.07) and stearoyl-CoA 1 (SCD1), as well as the transcription factor sterol regulatory element binding factor (SREBP1) in bovine mammary epithelial cells. Other studies also have suggested that polyunsaturated FA increase free radical load in ruminants (Vázquez-Añón and Jenkins, 2007;Vazquez-Anon et al, 2008;Wang et al, 2010) as shown by higher lipoperoxidation susceptibility of plasma in sheep (Gladine et al, 2007) and dairy cows (Gobert et al, 2009) supplemented with omega-3-rich diets. Although the physiological basis for this response to lipid supplements is not totally understood yet, failure of the endogenous antioxidant system in preventing lipoperoxidation may be involved as shown by reduced activity of GPX in plasma of dairy cows infused with FO (Côrtes et al, 2012).…”

Blood clinicopathological differences between type I and II ketosis in dairy cows

“…During the transition dairy cow undergo a period of negative energy balance for the demands of milk synthesis, which cannot be met by feed intake (Wang et al, 2010). Ketosis, one of the most prevalent metabolic diseases in dairy cows during transition period, was a condition that the concentration of ketone in blood was exceeding than 3,000mol/L (Oetzel, 2007) during the transition (Shire et al, 2013;Zhang et al, 2013).…”