Nature's Compensation for the Lost Quarter of a Cow's Udder

Swett, W. W.; Matthews, C.A.; Miller, Fred W.; Graves, R. R.

doi:10.3168/jds.s0022-0302(38)95606-1

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…There seems little doubt that cows carefully selected for the low tension character of their milk could be maintained as a herd. CONFORMATION In a study by the Bureau of Dairy Industry, U.S. Department of Agriculture by Swett et al (73), an interim report is made of a study of external body measurements as an index of production on 593 cows, with the co-operation of nineteen Agricultural Experiment Stations. Details are given of the measurements, and the results are presented by breeds, but no conclusions are drawn: certain post-mortem measurements are also given.…”

Section: Curd Tensionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Section G. Genetics of Dairy Cattle

Smith

1939

Journal of Dairy Research

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Milk yield Shape of the lactation curve Sex linkage Butterfat Protein Other constituents Colour and flavour Vitamin content Curd tension Conformation Efficiency of production and growth The progeny test Reproduction and wastage Breed and herd construction-inbreeding Tropical Artificial insemination MILK YIELD So long as any studies are made upon the inheritance of milking capacity, so long will there be debate as to the relative influence of heredity and environment. In past reviews on this subject, emphasis has been laid upon the work of Von Patow, who produced the "byre average" as a means for assessing the true genetic worth of dairy cattle. In the last review a paper by Lush was quoted, treating the "byre average" from a purely statistical angle, in which he showed that the method was unlikely to lead to a Mendelian analysis which corresponded to reality. The outstanding paper which now falls for review is by Lortscher(l), a Swiss investigator, who has worked in Edinburgh at the Institute of Animal Genetics, under von Patow at Berlin, and with Dr Schmidt at Zurich. Some 4000 lactation records of 1200 cows from a group of British Friesian herds (Terling-Lavenham) in England provide the data. The yields of the individual cows, reduced to the "byre average" by the von Patow formula, were shown to normalize the frequency of distribution, as predicted by Lush. The figures obtained were found to fit von Patow's genetic hypothesis of milk inheritance. Out of 833 daughter-dam comparisons, in only 0-6% was the genotype of the one not in agreement with that of the other. The genotype of the bulls was ascertained by comparing the genotypes of the daughters to their dams. Of forty-three bulls with at least five tested daughters, all were heterozygous for the three factors belonging to those genetic classes which allow the largest possible combinations of genes when mated to cows of all classes. With the bulls arranged according to the periods they were in service in the herds, the distribution of their daughters, with respect to the seven genetic classes, does not show any increasing asymmetry, and for only two of the forty-three bulls was there a small, but significant, difference between the mean of the daughters and of their dams. Accordingly, the author is forced to the deduction that, according to von Patow's hypothesis and method of investigation, there has been in these herds no success as a result of selective breeding for high milk production during the past 20 years. Employing Krtiger's adaptation of the "byre average" (where the yields are corrected for certain environmental factors before being reduced to the average) no significant difference was

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Section: Curd Tensionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…content of the milk was raised and the freezing-point depressed. Swett et al (13) show that the loss of a quarter in the udder of a cow does not necessarily diminish her yield in proportion: the ability of nature to compensate for such a loss is stressed.…”

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confidence: 99%

Section G. Genetics of Dairy Cattle

Smith

1939

Journal of Dairy Research

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“…In spite of the view generally held that the udder possesses three pairs of efferent veins, the subcutaneous abdominal, the external pudic and the internal pudic, he finds that the direction of blood flow in the last of these is actually into the udder rather than away from it and that the internal pudic vein can therefore no longer be regarded as efferent. Further data collected in the study of the anatomy of nearly 600 dairy cows for which records of production are available have also been published in tabulated form by Swett and his colleagues (150), while in a further paper(i5i) they draw attention to the difficulty of obtaining or computing accurate production records for the comparative study of milk capacity when one or more quarters are non-lactating. The work is most efficiently described and excellently illustrated, but is too detailed for a brief review such as is permissible here.…”

Section: Biophysical Aspectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

I. Reproduction and lactation

Smith

1939

Journal of Dairy Research

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ALTHOUGH research work on the physiology of reproduction in dairy cattle does not appear to have made any outstanding advance during the past two years, some slight but valuable progress is reported in a few of the more important branches of the subject. Non-pathological sterility, one of the greatest problems for the dairy farmer, continues to be studied in detail. Its importance could not be better gauged than by reference to the published account of a lecture by Craig (1) in which this recognized authority presents a concise and clear account of the problem as it exists today. The value of the account is enhanced by the subsequent discussion in which various points are raised by questioners possessing first-hand knowledge of the practical difficulties involved. Lagerlof (2) has published a treatise on sterility which opens with sections devoted to its etiology, genetics and hygiene. He then passes to the main part of the paper which deals with sterility in the bull and in which he stresses that a study of the morphological characters of the spermatozoa is more important for detecting permanent sterility in bulls than their actual number and motility, because active motility does not necessarily imply fertility and in old bulls the number may be perfectly normal although fertility is declining. The various types of spermatozoa are described and illustrated and it is explained that the number of spermatozoa deviating morphologically from the normal is a point of importance. Thus for the 100 normal bulls examined this number was found to be 117 per 1000, but with bulls having defective development of the testes, those in which sterility set in suddenly and in aged bulls the corresponding number was well over 300. In this connexion it may be mentioned that the development of the testes and the scrotum of the ram, bull and boar has been studied in detail by Phillips & Andrews (3) with the object of collecting information which might lead to the better breeding, management and feeding of young males. The influence of diet on reproduction has been investigated by Arnold et al.{±) particularly with regard to mineral requirements and by Meigs & Conversed) with reference to vitamin A. Arnold and his colleagues find that under natural conditions in Florida, salt sickness retards reproduction and that its results can be overcome by the addition of ammonium citrate and copper sulphate to the drinking water or by free access to bone meal and certain mineral mixtures. Calves from heifers suffering from this deficiency had an average weight of only 39 lb. as compared with 54 lb. for those from normal heifers, and the lighter calves were more delicate and more prone to ailments of various kinds. Copper and perhaps iron appear to be essential in the diet for normal reproduction. Meigs and Converse confirm the results of other workers, mentioned in the previous review, who have stressed the necessity for vitamin A or carotene for normal healthy reproduction in cows. They have found that with rations poor in carotene there is a l...

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“…In 1938, Swett et al 74 reported that, in a single cow with non-functional rear quarters, growth and development of the front quarters compensated for parenchymal loss in the rear quarters with partial compensation of milk production. More recently, Woolford 89,90 compared milk yields of 39 cows experimentally infected with S. aureus with their infection-free identical twins.…”

Section: Compensatory Growth Of the Mammary Glandmentioning

confidence: 99%

Immune Surveillance of Mammary Tissue by Phagocytic Cells

Paape¹,

Shafer‐Weaver²,

Capuco

et al. 2002

Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology

112

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The leukocytes in milk consist of lymphocytes, neutrophil polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) and macrophages. Lymphocytes together with antigen-presenting cells function in the generation of an effective immune response. Lymphocytes can be divided into two distinct subsets, T- and B-lymphocytes, that differ in function and protein products. The professional phagocytic cells of the bovine mammary gland are PMN and macrophages. In the normal mammary gland macrophages are the predominate cells which act as sentinels to invading mastitis causing pathogens. Once the invaders are detected, macrophages release chemical messengers called chemoattractants that cause the directed migration of PMN into the infection. Migration of neutrophils into mammary tissue provides the first immunological line of defense against bacteria that penetrate the physical barrier of the teat canal. However, their presence is like a double-edged sword. While the PMN are phagocytosing and destroying the invading pathogens, they inadvertently release chemicals which induces swelling of secretory epithelium cytoplasm, sloughing of secretory cells, and decreased secretory activity. Permanent scarring will result in a loss of milk production. Resident and newly migrated macrophages help reduce the damage to the epithelium by phagocytosing PMN that undergo programmed cell death through a process called apoptosis. Specific ligands on the neutrophil surface are required for directed migration and phagocytosis. In response to infection, freshly migrated leukocytes express greater numbers of cell surface receptors for immunoglobulins and complement and are more phagocytic than their counterparts in blood. However, phagocytic activity rapidly decreases with continued exposure to inhibitory factors such as milk fat globules and casein in mammary secretions. Compensatory hypertrophy in non-mastitic quarters partially compensates for lost milk production in diseased quarters. Advances in molecular biology are making available the tools, techniques, and products to study and modulate host-parasite interactions. For example the cloning and expression of proteins that bind endotoxin may provide ways of reducing damaging effects of endotoxin during acute coliform mastitis. The successful formation of bifunctional monoclonal antibodies for the targeted lysis of mastitis causing bacteria represents a new line of therapeutics for the control of mastitis in dairy cows.

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Nature's Compensation for the Lost Quarter of a Cow's Udder

Cited by 9 publications

References 0 publications

Section G. Genetics of Dairy Cattle

Section G. Genetics of Dairy Cattle

I. Reproduction and lactation

Immune Surveillance of Mammary Tissue by Phagocytic Cells

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