Soybean oil and calcium salts of fatty acids as fat sources for Holstein dairy cows in transition period

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of using different lipid sources in diets for dairy cows during the transition period and early lactation on productive performance and physiological parameters in Holstein cows. The cows were fed with the following diets: 1) control; 2) Refined soybean oil; 3) Calcium salts of unsaturated fatty acids (Megalac-E). Diets were formulated to meet the nutritional requirements of cows during the pre-partum and postpartum period. The experimental diets affected the dry matter intake, body weight, body condition score, and energy balance in the postpartum period. The experimental diets did not affect the biochemical parameters in serum: glucose, total protein, albumin, urea, serum urea nitrogen, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, non-esterified fatty acids, β-hydroxybutyrate, aspartate aminotransferase, γ-glutamyl transferase, alkaline phosphatase, also not being observed differences between the contrasts analyzed. The lipid sources soybean oil and calcium salts not directly influence the plasmatic physiological parameters of dairy cows in the period transition. But, fat supplementation in the transition period resulted in a better metabolic status and productive performance, mainly improving energy balance post-partum

Plasma metabolite changes in dairy cows during parturition identified using untargeted metabolomics

“…Previous studies have confirmed that the DMI of dairy cows is significantly reduced during the transition period, particularly immediately before and after parturition (Bell, 1995;Gandra et al, 2014;Cheong et al, 2016). However, when cows enter the lactation stage, energy intake is insufficient to meet the energy demand for lactation, and thus the body will increase the pro-duction of endogenous glucose to maintain glucose homeostasis (Wankhade et al, 2017).…”