doi: 10.15389/agrobiology.2018.6.1180eng

UDC 636.2:591.1

Acknowledgements:
This work is performed within the frame of State agreement ¹ 0600-2018-0016 (reg. CITiS ¹ ÀÀÀÀ-À18-118021990006-9)

 

REPRODUCTIVE STATUS AND BLOOD BIOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS
OF HOLSTEIN COWS WITH DIFFERENT MILK PRODUCTIVITIES
IN CONNECTION WITH THE DYNAMICS OF LIPID METABOLISM
DURING THE POSTPARTUM PERIOD

I.Yu. Lebedeva1, V.B. Leybova2, A.A. Solomakhin1, O.S. Mityashova1,
R.A. Rykov1

1Ernst Federal Science Center for Animal Husbandry,60, pos. Dubrovitsy, Podolsk District, Moscow Province, 142132 Russia, e-mail irledv@mail.ru (✉ corresponding author), leib1406@yandex.ru, alsolomahin@yandex.ru, mityashova_o@mail.ru, Brukw@bk.ru;
2All-Russian Research Institute for Farm Animal Genetics and Breeding — branch of Ernst Federal Science Center for Animal Husbandry, 55À, Moskovskoe sh., St. Petersburg—Pushkin, 196625 Russia, e-mail leib1406@yandex.ru

ORCID:
Lebedeva I.Yu. orcid.org/0000-0002-7815-7900
Mityashova O.S. orcid.org/0000-0002-0401-5088
Leybova V.B. orcid.org/0000-0002-7017-9988
Rykov R.A. orcid.org/0000-0003-0228-8901
Solomakhin A.A. orcid.org/0000-0002-3406-0066
The authors declare no conflict of interests

Received September 17, 2018

 

In the early period of lactation, the energy needs of high-yielding dairy cows sharply increase, which leads to a negative energy balance. For it compensation, the organism spends its internal resources, mainly lipid reserves. Normalization of cholesterol production at the beginning of the postpartum period is obviously associated with an increase in the animal reproductive ability. However, it remains unclear what role in the regulation of the reproductive function can play a change in the blood level of triglycerides. Here, we compared for the first time the duration of the calving to conception interval in Holstein cows with medium (MP) and high milk productivity (HP) depending on the increase or decrease in the blood concentration of triglycerides from the end of month 1 to the end of month 2 of lactation. Furthermore, we found a connection between the calving to conception interval, the serum content of triglycerides, and some other indexes of metabolism. Cows (Bos taurus taurus) of the Holstein breed of the 1st calving with milk yield of 6336±160 kg per 305-day lactation (n = 19; EKH Klyonovo-Chegodaevo, settlement Klyonovskoe, Moscow) and of the 2nd-3rd calving with milk yield of 10007±420 kg per 305-day lactation (n = 14; PZ Prinevskoe, Vsevolozhsk Region, Leningrad Province) were used in the experiments. In 3-4 and 7-8 weeks after calving, the blood samples were collected to assay the concentrations of triglycerides, total cholesterol, total protein and its fractions, urea, creatinine, glucose as well as the activity of aspartate aminotransferase (AST, EC 2.6.1.1) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT, EC 2.6.1.2). All cows were divided into 2 groups. Group I consisted of animals in which the blood level of triglycerides decreased by the end of the 2nd month of lactation (MP: n = 10, HP: n = 8). Group II consisted of animals in which no such decrease was observed (MP: n = 9, HP: n = 6). Twelve months after calving, the average values for the calving to conception interval and milk yield per 100-day lactation were determined in all groups. In cows with MP between the 3rd-4th and 7th-8th weeks of lactation, the blood triglycerides concentration decreased 1.2 times (p < 0.001) in group I and increased 1.1 times (p < 0.01) in group II. The total blood cholesterol content grew significantly (1.2-1.3 times) in animals of both groups. Meanwhile, the calving to conception interval was 1.6 times shorter in group I than in group II (86±12 vs. 140±21 days, p < 0.05). In cows with HP, by the end of the 2nd month of lactation, the concentration of triglycerides decreased 1.6 times (p < 0.01) in group I and increased 2 times (p < 0.001) in group II. The content of total cholesterol rose 1.2-1.5 times in the blood of animals of both groups. The calving to conception interval in group I was 1.5 times shorter than in group II, but this reduction was not reliable. In addition, in these animals, the milk yield per 100-day lactation in group I was 534 kg higher than in group II (p < 0.05). Correlation analysis revealed a negative relationship between the duration of the calving to conception interval and the triglyceride content in the blood of cows with HP at the end of the 1st month of lactation (r = 0.56 with p < 0.05). At the end of the month 2, a positive relationship between these indicators in cows with MP and HP was observed (r = 0.60 with p < 0.01 and r = 0.56 with p < 0.05, respectively). In animals with MP, the duration of the calving to conception interval was also associated with biochemical parameters, which correlated with serum triglyceride concentrations. Thus, in cows of the Holstein breed, the dynamics of lipid metabolism in the middle of the first trimester of lactation was characterized by an increase in the total cholesterol content, whereas the blood level of triglycerides varied in different individuals differently. The decrease in the concentration of triglycerides from the end of month 1 to the end of month 2 of lactation, obviously, causes improving the reproductive function and leads to a reduction in the duration of the calving to conception interval, regardless of the milk productivity of animals. Concurrently, in animals with the high milk productivity, such a decrease is more pronounced and may be related to an increase in the milk yield.

Keywords: Holstein breed, cows, triglycerides, metabolism, reproductive ability, milk productivity.

 

Full article (Rus)

Full article (Eng)

 

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