Metabolic Stress in the Transition Period of Dairy Cows: Focusing on the Prepartum Period

• Published in: Animals (Basel) Vol. 10; no. 8; p. 1419
• Main Authors: Pascottini, Osvaldo Bogado, Leroy, Jo L M R, Opsomer, Geert
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 01-08-2020; MDPI
• Subjects: Animal lactation; Apoptosis; Biomarkers; Dairy cattle; Diet; Disease; dry period; Drying; Energy; Energy balance; Immunosuppression; Infectious diseases; Inflammation; Insulin; Insulin resistance; Life span; metabolic status; Metabolism; Milk production; Physiological aspects; Physiology; Postpartum; Postpartum period; Review; Risk factors; systemic inflammation; transition disease; systemic inflammation; energy balance; dry period; metabolic status; insulin resistance; transition disease
• ISSN: 2076-2615; 2076-2615
• DOI: 10.3390/ani10081419

All modern, high-yielding dairy cows experience a certain degree of reduced insulin sensitivity, negative energy balance, and systemic inflammation during the transition period. Maladaptation to these changes may result in excessive fat mobilization, dysregulation of inflammation, immunosuppression, and, ultimately, metabolic or infectious disease in the postpartum period. Up to half of the clinical diseases in the lifespan of high-yielding dairy cows occur within 3 weeks of calving. Thus, the vast majority of prospective studies on transition dairy cows are focused on the postpartum period. However, predisposition to clinical disease and key (patho)physiological events such as a spontaneous reduction in feed intake, insulin resistance, fat mobilization, and systemic inflammation already occur in the prepartum period. This review focuses on metabolic, adaptive events occurring from drying off until calving in high-yielding cows and discusses determinants that may trigger (mal)adaptation to these events in the late prepartum period.