Effect of plane of milk replacer intake and age on glucose and insulin kinetics and abomasal emptying in female Holstein Friesian dairy calves fed twice daily

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate how preweaning plane of milk replacer intake and age can affect insulin and glucose kinetics as well as abomasal emptying rate in dairy calves fed twice a day. A total of 12 female Holstein Friesian calves were blocked by cow parity, paired by colostrum origin, and were randomly assigned to a high plane of milk replacer intake (8 L/d, 1.2kg of milk replacer/d; n=6) or a low plane of nutrition (4 L/d, 0.6kg of milk replacer/d; n=6). All calves received 4 L of colostrum over 2 meals (1 and 6h after birth) and were then directly transferred to their assigned feeding plans until they were stepped-down from milk by 50% during wk 7 and weaned on wk 8. Milk replacer (24% crude protein, 18% crude fat) was fed at 150g/L twice daily (0700 and 1700h) and all calves had ad libitum access to pelleted calf starter, chopped wheat straw, and water. Jugular catheters were placed in all calves at 4, 7, and 10wk of age. Then, postprandial response to plasma glucose, insulin, and acetaminophen (supplied with the meal) were determined to measure abomasal emptying. The next day, a glucose tolerance test was conducted by infusing glucose via the jugular catheter. At 4 and 7wk of age, the rate constant (%/h) for abomasal emptying of the meal was lower in high calves (0.21±0.02 in wk 4; 0.27±0.02 in wk 7) compared with low (0.34±0.02 in wk 4; 0.47±0.02 in wk 7). The postprandial plasma insulin area under the curve over 420min was greater in high calves (18,443±7,329; low=5,834±739 µU/mL) compared with low. We found no differences in glucose tolerance test kinetics between the high and low dairy calves at 4, 7, or 10wk of age. The findings from this study suggest that feeding dairy calves an elevated plane of nutrition in 2 meals of milk replacer per day does not decrease insulin sensitivity.

Effects of exchanging lactose for fat in milk replacer on ad libitum feed intake and growth performance in dairy calves

“…The rates of BW gain observed in the current study were at the higher end of the range observed in previ-ous studies where calves were exposed to high planes or ad libitum provision of milk or CMR (Moallem et al, 2010;MacPherson et al, 2016;de Paula et al, 2017;Korst et al, 2017). In period 2, intake of the HL CMR was 13% greater.…”

Invited Review: Nutritional regulation of gut function in dairy calves: From colostrum to weaning

“…However, results from Bach et al (2013) also showed that calves fed a high plane of nutrition needed significantly greater insulin to control their high plasma glucose levels compared with calves fed a lower plane of nutrition. In contrast, recent studies by MacPherson et al (2016MacPherson et al ( , 2019 demonstrated that feeding an elevated plane of nutrition in 2 or 4 meals per day had minimal effect on glucose metabolism and insulin sensitivity, which may be associated with the calf's ability to slow down the delivery of large meals from the abomasum to the intestine. The major difference between these studies was that calves in the studies by MacPherson et al (2016MacPherson et al ( , 2019 were fed elevated planes of nutrition from the first week of life, which may be a critical developmental window for the calf to adapt to the higher level of milk.…”

“…In contrast, recent studies by MacPherson et al (2016MacPherson et al ( , 2019 demonstrated that feeding an elevated plane of nutrition in 2 or 4 meals per day had minimal effect on glucose metabolism and insulin sensitivity, which may be associated with the calf's ability to slow down the delivery of large meals from the abomasum to the intestine. The major difference between these studies was that calves in the studies by MacPherson et al (2016MacPherson et al ( , 2019 were fed elevated planes of nutrition from the first week of life, which may be a critical developmental window for the calf to adapt to the higher level of milk. Moreover, there may have been differences in the MR composition between these 2 studies, such as the percentage of skim milk powder or whey protein, that may have had an effect on abomasal clotting (Constable et al, 2005) and thereby affected abomasal emptying and insulin sensitivity (Stahel et al, 2016).…”

Symposium review: Macronutrient metabolism in the growing calf

“…Although, clearly, postprandial glucose and insulin kinetics are influenced by intake of milk or CMR, evidence is accumulating that these changes are rather unrelated to changes in insulin sensitivity. In young calves, MacPherson et al (2016) found no effect of doubling CMR intake from 4 to 8 L/d on glucose an insulin responses to a FSIGT, hence concluding that its effect on insulin sensitivity was minimal. Yunta et al (2015) observed a tendency for a decrease in insulin sensitivity with increasing CMR intake, particularly at 42 d of age.…”

“…Indeed, despite the low insulin sensitivity in heavy calves, glucose is virtually completely oxidized, regardless of the level of feeding (van den Borne et al, 2007). In addition, insulin peaks in calves typically follow, rather than precede glucose peaks postprandially (Vicari et al, 2008b), even in young calves (MacPherson et al, 2016;Pantophlet et al, 2016b), which differs from responses in other species and illustrates the absence of cephalic responses to a meal. Hence, insulin sensitivity appears not to be a promising target for early life metabolic programming in calves.…”