Peripheral and gastrointestinal immune systems of healthy cattle raised outdoors at pasture or indoors on a concentrate-based ration

Abstract

BackgroundDespite an increasing preference of consumers for beef produced from more extensive pasture-based production systems and potential human health benefits from the consumption of such beef, data regarding the health status of animals raised on pasture are limited. The objective of this study was to characterise specific aspects of the bovine peripheral and the gastrointestinal muscosal immune systems of cattle raised on an outdoor pasture system in comparison to animals raised on a conventional intensive indoor concentrate-based system.ResultsA number of in vitro functional tests of immune cells suggested subtle differences between the animals on the outdoor versus indoor production systems. There was a decrease in the number of neutrophils and monocytes engaged in phagocytosis in outdoor cattle (P < 0.01 and P < 0.05, respectively) in comparison to those indoors. Following mitogen stimulation, a lower level of interferon-γ was produced in leukocytes from the outdoor animals (P < 0.05). There was evidence of a gastrointestinal nematode infection in the outdoor animals with elevated levels of serum pepsinogen (P < 0.001), a higher number of eosinophils (P < 0.05) and a higher level of interleukin-4 and stem cell factor mRNA expression (P < 0.05) in the outdoor animals in comparison to the indoor animals. Lower levels of copper and iodine were measured in the outdoor animals in comparison to indoor animals (P < 0.001).ConclusionDespite distinctly contrasting production systems, only subtle differences were identified in the peripheral immune parameters measured between cattle raised at pasture in comparison to animals raised on a conventional intensive indoor concentrate-based production system.

Comparative phenotypic profile of subpopulations of peripheral blood leukocytes in European (Bos taurus taurus) and Zebu cattle (Bos taurus indicus)

“…Several factors may affect the population of leukocytes in the peripheral blood of cattle, including age (Guzman et al, 2012), sex or reproductive stage (Oliveira and Hansen, 2008), and environment (Lejeune et al, 2010). In this study, these factors should not have played any significant role since all cattle studied were prepubertal, within the same age range, and they were raised under standardized, conventional conditions for these breeds.…”

Commensal microbiome effects on mucosal immune system development in the ruminant gastrointestinal tract

“…Newborn calves fed colostrum for 14 days postpartum had 108 less days per treatment group of gastrointestinal distress, as monitored by diarrhea, than calves fed milk replacer (Berge et al , 2009). Furthermore, calves grazing pastures had significantly different immunological profiles, exemplified by lower IFN-γ production from ConA stimulated leukocytes and significantly different cytokine profiles from small intestine tissue, when compared to indoor-housed heifers fed a grain-based diet (Lejeune et al , 2010). Furthermore, when Callaway et al (2010) used bacterial tag-encoded FLX amplicon pyrosequencing to define diversity in rumen and faeces, they observed that as dietary supplementation with dried distiller grains increased there was a decreased Firmicutes : Bacteroidetes ratio within ruminal fluid, an increased proportion of Acinetobacter in feces and that pH decreased on higher grain diets.…”

Housing system significantly modulates the association of serum levels of essential and toxic trace elements and minerals with milk productivity in dairy cows

“…O'Brien et al (1999) demonstrated that milk Cu and I were found to be higher during winter periods, whereas no clear trend in the changes of Mn, Mo, Zn, Co, Cr, and Fe levels was observed (O'Brien et al 1999). Correspondingly, administration of a concentrate-based ration was associated with higher blood I level (Lejeune et al 2010). In addition, it has been demonstrated that the intake of Co is also associated with the administration of concentrate feeds (Orjales et al 2018).…”