Effect of animal activity and air temperature on heat production, heart rate, and oxygen pulse in lactating Holstein cows.

A linear relationship between heart rate (HR) and oxygen consumption (VO2) has been reported in homeothermic animals, indicating that is possible to estimate heat production through HR measurements. This relationship may depend on the animal activity and environmental conditions. The main objective of the present study was to evaluate the effect of the air temperature and animal posture and activity on heat production and VO2 in relation to HR. In addition, as a secondary objective, the energy cost of eating and ruminating versus idling and standing versus lying down was determined. Twelve Holstein lactating cows were housed inside climate-controlled respiration chambers for 8 d, where the air temperature was gradually increased from 7 to 21°C during the night and from 16 to 30°C during the day with daily increments of 2°C for both daytime and nighttime. During the 8-d data collection period, HR and gaseous exchange measurements were performed, and animal posture and activity were recorded continuously. The oxygen pulse (O2P), which represents the amount of oxygen that is consumed by the cow per heartbeat, was calculated as the ratio between VO2 and HR. Results showed that heat production and VO2 were linearly and positively associated with HR, but this relationship largely varied between individual cows. Within the range tested, O2P was unaffected by temperature, but we detected a tendency for an interaction of O2P with the temperature range tested during the night versus during the day. This indicates that the effect of air temperature on O2P is nonlinear. Standing and eating slightly increased O2P (1.0 and 2.5%) compared with lying down and idling, respectively, whereas rumination increased O2P by 5.1% compared with idling. It was concluded that the potential bias introduced by these effects on the O2P for the application of the technique is limited. The energy cost of eating and ruminating over idling was 223 ± 11 and 45 ± 6 kJ/kg0.75 per day, respectively, whereas the energy cost of standing over lying down was 53 ± 6 kJ/kg0.75 per day. We concluded that O2P in dairy cows was slightly affected by both animal posture and activity, but remained unaffected by air temperature within 8 to 32°C. Nonlinearity of the relationship between the O2P and air temperature suggests that caution is required extrapolating O2P beyond the temperature range evaluated in our experiment.

Differential hepatic mitochondrial function and gluconeogenic gene expression in 2 Holstein strains in a pasture-based system.

The objective of this study was to assess hepatic ATP synthesis in Holstein cows of North American and New Zealand origins and the gluconeogenic pathway, one of the pathways with the highest ATP demands in the ruminant liver. Autumn-calving Holstein cows of New Zealand and North American origins were managed in a pasture-based system with supplementation of concentrate that represented approximately 33% of the predicted dry matter intake during 2017, 2018, and 2019, and hepatic biopsies were taken during mid-lactation at 174 ± 23 days in milk. Cows of both strains produced similar levels of solids-corrected milk, and no differences in body condition score were found. Plasma glucose concentrations were higher for cows of New Zealand versus North American origin. Hepatic mitochondrial function evaluated measuring oxygen consumption rates showed that mitochondrial parameters related to ATP synthesis and maximum respiratory rate were increased for cows of New Zealand compared with North American origin. However, hepatic gene expression of pyruvate carboxylase, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, and pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase was increased in North American compared with New Zealand cows. These results altogether suggest an increased activity of the tricarboxylic cycle in New Zealand cows, leading to increased ATP synthesis, whereas North American cows pull tricarboxylic cycle intermediates toward gluconeogenesis. The fact that this occurs during mid-lactation could account for the increased persistency of North American cows, especially in a pasture-based system. In addition, we observed an augmented mitochondrial density in New Zealand cows, which could be related to feed efficiency mechanisms. In sum, our results contribute to the elucidation of hepatic molecular mechanisms in dairy cows in production systems with higher inclusion of pastures.

Hepatic metabolism of grazing cows of two Holstein strains under two feeding strategies with different levels of pasture inclusion.

The objective of the study was to characterize adaptations of hepatic metabolism of dairy cows of two Holstein strains with varying proportions of grazing in the feeding strategy. Multiparous autumn calving Holstein cows of New Zealand (NZH) and North American (NAH) strains were assigned to a randomized complete block design with a 2 x 2 factorial arrangement with two feeding strategies that varied in the proportions of pasture and supplementation: maximum pasture and supplementation with a pelleted concentrate (MaxP) or fixed pasture and supplementation with a total mixed ration (FixP) from May through November of 2018. Hepatic biopsies were taken at - 45 ± 17, 21 ± 7, 100 ± 23 and 180 ± 23 days in milk (DIM), representing prepartum, early lactation, early mid-lactation and late mid-lactation. The effects of DIM, feeding strategy (FS), strain and their interactions were analyzed with mixed models using repeated measures. Cows of both strains had similar triglyceride levels, mitochondrial function and carnitine palmitoyltransferase activity in liver during lactation. However, there was an effect of DIM and FS as liver triglyceride was higher for the MaxP strategy at 21 DIM and both mitochondrial function and carnitine palmitoyltransferase activity in liver were lower for the MaxP strategy at 21 DIM. Hepatic mitochondrial function and acetylation levels were affected by the interaction between strain and feeding strategy as both variables were higher for NAH cows in the MaxP strategy. Mid-lactation hepatic gene expression of enzymes related to fatty acid metabolism and nuclear receptors was higher for NZH than NAH cows. This work confirms the association between liver triglyceride, decreased hepatic mitochondrial function and greater mitochondrial acetylation levels in cows with a higher inclusion of pasture and suggests differential adaptative mechanisms between NAH and NZH cows to strategies with varying proportions of grazing in the feeding strategy.