The effect of prepartum feeding and lying space on metabolic health and immune function

Abstract

The determinants of metabolic and reproductive health disorders in the peripartum period and the degree to which feeding and lying space and management can influence health are only partially understood. The objective of this randomized controlled study was to determine whether providing noncompetitive feeding and lying access in the close-up dry period improves health and immune function. Forty-eight Holstein cows of all parities were randomly assigned to a treatment group of 6 to 10 cows in 1 pen with either 80% cows to stalls and 90 cm of feeding space per cow (understocked) or 120% stocking density and 45 cm of feeding space per cow (overstocked) for 3 wk before expected calving. All cows wore electronic data loggers to monitor daily standing and lying time. Video recordings representing d 7 to 9 after group formation were reviewed, and a competition index (C_Ind) was calculated for each cow by dividing the number of times a cow displaced another as an actor by its total number of actor and reactor displacements. Cows were categorized as high success (C_Ind ≥0.6), moderate success (0.4 ≤ C_Ind <0.6), or low success (C_Ind <0.4). Weekly blood samples measured nonesterified fatty acids, β-hydroxybutyrate, calcium, glucose, albumin, aspartate aminotransferase, bilirubin, haptoglobin, insulin, and insulin-like growth factor-1 from 3 wk before to 5 wk after calving. Measures of innate immune function (neutrophil phagocytosis and oxidative burst) were assessed at -2, -1, 1, 2, 3, and 5 wk relative to calving. Liver biopsies were collected at wk 1 and 3. Cows in the understocked group spent significantly more time per day lying; the back-transformed least squares means and 95% confidence interval were 14.8 h (13.9-15.6) versus 12.8 h (12.0-13.7). Controlling for parity, there was no difference between treatments in β-hydroxybutyrate, nonesterified fatty acids, glucose, insulin, insulin-like growth factor 1, aspartate aminotransferase, bilirubin, or haptoglobin concentrations. Throughout the study, cows in the understocked treatment had higher mean calcium and tended to have higher albumin and at 3 wk after calving tended to have lower mean liver triacylglycerol content. Overall, there was no treatment effect on phagocytosis, but cows with a higher C_Ind in the understocked treatment group had greater oxidative burst function. There was no effect of treatment on endometritis. Despite increased competition and lower lying time, the expected harmful effects of crowding and competition on metabolic indicators and innate immune function were mostly not observed. Although this does not refute the importance of access to feeding and lying space, these results indicate that metabolic and reproductive health is more complex than can be explained solely by exposure to what are understood to be best practices for space allowances.

Review: Relationships between metabolism and neutrophil function in dairy cows in the peripartum period

“…These authors hypothesise that such cows may spend more time in aggressive interactions but fail to use their apparent advantage to consume more feed or achieve greater health (at least with respect to uterine disease). We concluded from our study (Miltenburg et al, 2018a) and the published data on the effects of crowding on metabolic health and innate immune function that the evidence does not refute the potential importance of space allowances under field conditions, but feeding and lying space alone are not the critical determinants of immune function in transition dairy cows. The minimal and optimal amounts of feeding and lying space likely depend on other variables, including whether primiparous and multiparous animals are commingled in the prepartum period (Chebel et al, 2016).…”

Short communication: The effect of calcium supplementation at calving on neutrophil function

“…Neutrophil isolation from whole blood with acid citrate dextrose was done within 3 h of collection. The procedure for neutrophil isolation and the oxidative burst and phagocytosis assays was as reported in Miltenburg et al (2018). For the oxidative burst assay, 200 μL of reconstituted neutrophils was incubated with fluorescent dye, and oxidative burst was stimulated with phorbol myristate acetate (PMA).…”

“…A gate was placed around the neutrophil population on forward versus side scatter cytograms using FlowJo software (Tree Star, Ashland, OR). Per Miltenburg et al (2018), the shift in the percentage of cells that underwent oxidative burst or phagocytosis was evaluated relative to each cow's negative control. A gate was placed around ≥97% of negative controls fluorescence (no PMA for the oxidative burst analysis and no fluorescent beads for the phagocytosis analysis), and the difference between the negative control and the positive observation for the percentage of cells outside the negative control gate was used to express success of oxidative burst or phagocytosis.…”

Epidemiology of subclinical hypocalcemia in early-lactation Holstein dairy cows: The temporal associations of plasma calcium concentration in the first 4 days in milk with disease and milk production

“…This study only included 2 farms, and therefore, was not designed to examine the effect of herd management practices on SCH classification. Miltenburg et al (2018) has found a tendency for prepartum cows being housed at 80% pen density to have greater Ca concentrations in the postpartum as compared with cows housed at 120% stocking density. Silva et al (2013) failed to observe any differences in postpartum energy metabolites when prepartum Jersey cows were housed as a closed group (i.e., no animal additions) versus weekly pen-moves (i.e., with addition of new animals) in the close-up pen; that study did not investigate the effect of pen-moves on postpartum Ca concentrations.…”