Effects of treatment of periparturient dairy cows with recombinant bovine somatotropin on health and productive and reproductive parameters

Abstract

The objectives of the current experiment were to evaluate the effects of treating periparturient dairy cows with recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST) on incidence of postpartum diseases and performance. Holstein (HO) and Jersey (JS) cows from 2 herds were enrolled in the experiment at 253 ± 3 d of gestation and assigned to the control (n = 432) and rbST125 (n = 437) treatments. Cows in the rbST125 treatment received 125 mg of rbST, weekly, from -21 to 21 d relative to calving. Blood sampled weekly, from -21 to 21 d relative to calving, from a subsample of cows was used to determine the concentrations of growth hormone (GH, HO = 106) and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1, HO = 147 and JS = 49). Cows were scored for body condition (BCS) at enrollment and at 1 ± 3, 30 ± 3, and 60 ± 3 d in milk (DIM). Cows were milked thrice daily and energy-corrected milk (ECM) yield was recorded for the first 30 DIM. Treatment of cows with rbST resulted in greater concentrations of GH during the prepartum (log back-transformed concentrations of GH: HO-control = 7.83 and HO-rbST125 = 10.36 ng/mL) and postpartum (log back-transformed concentrations of GH: HO-control = 10.45 and HO-rbST125 = 18.47 ng/mL) periods. Similarly, IGF-1 concentrations were higher during the prepartum (HO-control = 115.1 ± 4.9, HO-rbST125 = 137.7 ± 4.7, JS-control = 120.2 ± 8.3, JS-rbST125 = 167.1 ± 8.1 ng/mL) and postpartum (HO-control = 61.3 ± 4.0, HO-rbST125 = 75.2 ± 3.8, JS-control = 35.5 ± 6.9, JS-rbST125 = 54.6 ± 6.9 ng/mL) periods for rbST-treated cows. During the prepartum period, BCS was not affected by treatment, but during the postpartum period, BCS was reduced for rbST-treated cows (HO-control = 3.00 ± 0.03, HO-rbST125 = 2.90 ± 0.03, JS-control = 2.64 ± 0.02, JS-rbST125 = 2.61 ± 0.02). Cows from the rbST125 treatment tended to have lower incidence of retained fetal membranes (HO-control = 14.3, HO-rbST125 = 6.1, JS-control = 1.5, JS-rbST125 = 1.2%) and had reduced incidence of metritis (HO-control = 26.2, HO-rbST125 = 16.6, JS-control = 19.9, JS-rbST125 = 13.3%) compared with control cows. Ketosis incidence tended to be higher for rbST125 cows (HO-control = 9.4, HO-rbST125 = 11.3, JS-control = 8.5, JS-rbST125 = 13.4%) compared with control cows. The interaction between treatment and herd tended to affect yield of ECM during the first 30 DIM because HO cows treated with rbST during the periparturient period had greater yield than control HO cows (HO-control = 35.5 ± 1.0 vs. HO-rbST125 = 39.4 ± 1.0 kg/d), but treatment with rbST did not affect yield of ECM of JS cows (JS-control = 26.7 ± 0.6 vs. JS-rbST125 = 27.8 ± 0.6 kg/d). Treatment of periparturient dairy cows with 125 mg of rbST decreased the incidence of uterine disorders in HO and JS cows and increased yield of ECM during the first 30 DIM among HO cows, despite slightly increasing the incidence of ketosis.

Effect of recombinant bovine somatotropin on leukocyte mRNA expression for genes related to cell energy metabolism, cytokine production, phagocytosis, oxidative burst, and adaptive immunity

“…Although treatment of periparturient dairy cows with rbST increases serum IGF-1 concentrations during the peripartum period, despite the uncoupling of the somatotropic axis (Vicini et al, 1991;Gulay et al, 2004a,b), little is known about its effects on immune response. In recent experiments conducted by our group, treatment of periparturient Holstein cows with 125 mg of rbST increased IGF-1 concentrations (Silva et al, 2015(Silva et al, , 2017a and resulted in increased PMNL expression of the adhesion molecule CD62L, phagocytosis and oxidative burst, and serum optical density of ovalbumin-specific IgG (Silva et al, 2015). In addition, cows treated with 125 mg of rbST had reduced incidence of retained fetal membranes and metritis (Silva et al, 2015(Silva et al, , 2017a and reduced haptoglobin optical density at 7 d postpartum (Silva et al, 2015).…”

“…Cows used in the current experiment are a subsample of the cows used by Silva et al (2017a). Holstein cows (lactation ≥1) from a commercial freestall dairy herd located in northwest Wisconsin were enrolled in the experiment at 253 ± 3 d of gestation (−28 d relative to calving).…”

“…Within 12 h after calving, cows were moved to a postpartum freestall pen (1 to 21 d postpartum) for daily observation and examination for diagnosis of postpartum diseases. Composition of TMR fed during prepartum (far-off and close-up) and immediate postpartum (1 to 21 d postpartum) periods were described in Silva et al (2017a). Cows were milked thrice daily.…”

“…Only data on innate and adaptive immune parameters and gene expression from these cows are reported herein. Data on health, milk yield, BCS, growth hormone (GH), IGF-1, and metabolite concentrations 8473 from all cows enrolled in the experiment may be found in Silva et al (2017a).…”

“…Enhanced knowledge of the processes that regulate and potentiate the capacity of immune cells to fight and eliminate infections may lead to significant improvements in peripartum cow management and health. Administration of rbST to enhance leukocyte function might be an important strategy to prevent immunosuppression and infectious diseases in periparturient cows (Silva et al, 2015(Silva et al, , 2017a. Thus, there is reason to explore the potential for this endocrine pathway as a regulator of immunity and the mechanisms involved in its actions.…”