Management of Transition Animals by Feeding Rumen Protected Glucose- An Innovative Feed supplement
Abstract:
The transition period is one of the most challenging stages for the dairy cow as it is susceptible for negative energy balance. Transition from a pregnant, non-lactating state to a non-pregnant, lactating state requires exquisite metabolic adaptations to ensure adequate glucose sparing for lactation onset. The inability to effectively partition nutrients towards lactation is associated with metabolic disorders. Alteration in normal glucose metabolism and utilization predispose cows to many metabolic disorders and decrease in lactogenesis, but also causes reproductive disorders during established lactation. Therefore, it is hypothesized that glucose availability may limit milk yield during the transition period. Consequently, objectives were to determine the effects of feeding a rumen-bypass glucose product during the periparturient period on milk production, energetic metabolism, and inflammatory response in dairy cows. In this method, glucose could be coated completely so the rumen protected glucose could bypass the rumen of ruminant effectively; and the availability of coating layer in ruminant increases, making the coated glucose be released completely and fully utilized by ruminant, so ketosis or subclinical ketosis and fatty liver disease of the ruminants in perinatal stage could be prevented and reduced effectively, the postpartum weight loss could be reduced, and the cycle conception rate and the milk yield could be maintained.
Introduction:
The transition period from 3 weeks before calving to 3 weeks after calving is a critical stage for dairy cows (Grummer, 1995). The decreased dry matter intake (DMI) and increased demand for energy during early lactation create a negative energy balance (NEB) during periparturition of dairy cows (Grummer et al., 2004). This can result in ketosis or acidosis (Guo et al., 2007), fatty liver (Van Dorland et al., 2012), and other metabolic disorders. Research efforts have been devoted to diet formulation to alleviate detrimental effects of NEB. However, there were no positive responses when supplying transition cows with diets varying in energy content (Janovick and Drackley, 2010). Nutritional manipulation researches are warranted to ease the negative energy balance, and the underlying regulatory mechanisms are essential issues to be solved. Energy partition represents one of the most critical metabolic processes in dairy cows and has been linked to the health status and production performance of animals. It is well established that dietary carbohydrate provide glucogenic precursors in the form of propionate absorbed from the rumen, and as glucose absorbed from the small intestine if they by-pass rumen digestion (Rigout et al., 2003). Direct absorption of glucose in the small intestine can be more energy-efficient (Moran et al., 2014). Both milk yield and milk protein levels were enhanced in lactating dairy cows with duodenal infusion of glucose (Rigout et al., 2003), as glucose could act as precursor for lactose synthesis (Rigout et al., 2002). However, the fundamental mechanism through which rumen bypass glucose affects animal productivity remains unclear.
The extent of NEBAL may predispose cows to be more susceptible to ketosis, fatty liver, displaced abomasum, mastitis, and infertility; (Janovick and Drackley, 2010). Glucose is the precursor to lactose synthesis, and lactose is the primary osmoregulatory of milk yield (O’Brien et al., 2008). In addition to lactogenesis, mounting an immune response is a glucose-demanding process (Kvidera et al., 2017). Bradford et al. (2015) indicated that practically all transitioning dairy cows experience some degree of inflammation, regardless of their clinical health status. The inflammation origin is not always clear; however, probable sources during the transition period are the uterus and mammary gland (Bradford et al., 2015), as well as the gastrointestinal tract (Zebeli et al., 2015). Hence, glucose availability is critically important to promote maximal productivity and health; however, optimizing the post-absorptive “carbohydrate status” in ruminants is difficult as adding more dietary soluble carbohydrates may compromise rumen and post-absorptive health (Kleen et al., 2003). Therefore, providing a dietary source of glucose that is minimally digested in the rumen, but readily available in the small intestine (SI) may provide a safe nutritional strategy to increase the glucose availability in early lactating cows. We hypothesized that early lactation hepatic glucose output and glucose-sparing mechanisms may be insufficient to sustain peripartum inflammation and optimum milk yield in dairy cows. Therefore, our objectives were to determine if feeding rumen-protected glucose (RPG) throughout the transition period would improve productivity, bioenergetic metabolism, and inflammation.
Method of preparation:
The invention provides a kind of preparation method of rumen-protected glucose, including following step Suddenly：
(1) Glucose is prepared into pellet and is dried；
(2) The dried micro pill (pellets) is put into fluid bed and is fluidized. The fluid bed mainly consists of aliphatic alcohols and/or saturated fatty acid that will be melted and are coated with to the surface of the pellet in fluid bed. It is made these pellets to remain unaffected in the rumen-thus forming protected bypass glucose particle.
A method of preparing rumen protected glucose, comprising: mixing glucose and lipase, wherein the lipase is heat tolerant and comprises an enzyme activity of 10,000 U/g, with the enzyme activity maintained at 85% at a temperature of 85° C. tis enzyme activity remains high at pH ranges of 3-11; rendering and drying glucose into glucose pellets; fluidizing the glucose pellets in a fluidized bed after drying; and coating all surfaces of the glucose pellets with melted aliphatic alcohols and/or saturated fatty acids in the fluidized bed to obtain a rumen protected glucose pellets. The ratio by weight range of the glucose to aliphatic alcohols, or saturated fatty acids, or a combination thereof, is 25-75:45-70. The melting point of the saturated fatty acid used in the following embodiments is above 52° C., and the percentage by weight of C16˜C18 saturated fatty acid in the saturated fatty acid is 70%.
The disclosure further provides a preparation method of rumen protected glucose, wherein the glucose can be replaced by either disaccharide, or polysaccharide, or a combination of both. Disaccharide may comprise: saccharose, maltose, and lactose etc., with an exception of brown sugar. Polysaccharide may comprise various starches.
The content of the coated glucose leaves no residue of glucose particles in coating layer, so the rumen bypass percentage of glucose increases at least 25%-40%, which increases greatly to above 90%, and the requisite amount of ruminant for glucose during lactation period could be better satisfied;
The upper layer contains lipase, making the fatty acid be decomposed rapidly under the existence of gastric acid after the glucose pellet goes into the abomasum, which further makes the coated glucose be released more effectively, and the release rate thereof in small intestine could achieve 90%. The rumen protected bypass glucose is not only able to prevent effectively the happening of subclinical ketosis, clinical ketosis and fatty liver disease, but also able to treat the ketosis directly. Furthermore, the rumen protected bypass glucose is able to reduce the happening of postpartum weight loss and to increase the cycle conception rate. Moreover, the rumen protected bypass glucose can be offered to the ruminant directly, which offers energy to the ruminant, making a balance among the rumen bypass glucose, the rumen bypass fat and the rumen bypass amino acid and an increased milk yield, which is also meaningful for the health of ruminant.
ADVANTAGES OF FEEDING RUMEN-PROTECTED GLUCOSE
- It is an easily and directly utilized source of sugar around the period of birth.
- Combined energy-supplementary (protected glucose and fat-source at the same time).
- It has no negative effect on the digestion of crude fibre in the rumen.
- The rate of endogenous gluconeogenesis decreases.
- It improves the negative effects of the one-track corn-feeding regarding the national dairy cows’ feeding (e.g.: too much starch-proportion in the dose, which cannot be utilized).
Effect on Animals:
The rumen bypass protection technology could alleviate the negative energy balance thus help in reducing the chances of ketosis or the subclinical ketosis and the fatty liver disease. Specifically, it could prevent the nutrient substances which can be easily destroyed by rumen microorganism from microbial degradation by rumen microorganism by utilizing physical or chemical means, it also could form a coating layer on the surface of the nutrient substances that can be easily destroyed by rumen microorganism, and the nutrient substances could be re-released in abomasum and intestinal tract and utilized by ruminant, so the body requirement for glucose can be met and unnecessary gluconeogenesis mechanism can be avoided.
However, the rumen bypass protection technology in the prior art still has the following disadvantages: 1. the glucose which needs to be protected is not coated completely, so it can be easily degraded by rumen microorganism and the rumen bypass ratio is low; 2. the coating layer is lowly utilized by ruminant, hence, the coated glucose cannot be released completely and cannot be fully utilized by ruminant.
Since this technology is in very nascent stage with very limited supportive scientific experiment is being generated till date. Rumen-protected glucose (RPG) plays an important role in alleviating the negative energy balance of dairy cows. Li et al.,2019 reported that the RPG supply did not change the apparent digestibility of the CP, EE, OM, ADF, and NDF in the prepartum and postpartum periods. Zhand et al 2019 reported that Supplementing perinatal dairy cows with RPG decreased ileal TVFA, and up-regulated the expression of genes encoding glucose transport, gluconeogenesis and cellular metabolism. Furthermore, RPG supplementation up-regulated the expression of genes encoding anti-inflammatory cytokine IL10, and barrier function. Synchronously, ileal microbiota showed a distinct separation between ileal mucosa and digesta, but the treatment of RPG shows no variation between the control and test group.
Feeding bypass glucose showed 57% reduction in the number of milk somatic cells in the milk of multiparty cows at the end of the experiment. At the same time somatic cell count increased in the milk of the heifers by 83%. Contrary to experimental group cows, both heifers (16%) and multiparty cows (33%) of control group showed increase of milk fat to protein ratio at the end of the experiment compared to the beginning (Benak et al.,2020). However, the biochemical parameters (glucose, total protein, albumin, urea, insulin-like growth factor-1, non-esterified fatty acids, β-hydroxybutyrate and alkaline phosphatase) and milk performances between control group and the experimental group showed no significant change after supplementation with RPG.
Several rumen protected glucose products were cultured in vitro, and the rumen bypass percentage, the releasing percentage in small intestine and the effective releasing percentage of each product at different point-in-time were obtained by simulating ruminant rumen fluid and the small intestine fluid. The experiment results show the rumen bypass percentage, the releasing percentage in small intestine and the effective releasing percentage of the rumen bypass glucose of the products in the present disclosure have been significantly improved compared with those of product obtained in comparative example. The similar experiment effect could also be obtained when the weight percentage of C16˜C18 saturated fatty acid in the saturated fatty acid used in the preparation of samples A, B and C is more than 70%.
Wang et al., 2021 reported that RPG supplementation of different doses can change the diversity of microorganisms in the rumen and affect the rumen fermentation pattern and microbial metabolism and that a daily supplement of 350 g of RPG might be the ideal dose. MRPG supplementation increased bacterial richness and diversity, including increasing the relative abundance of cellulolytic bacteria, such as Ruminococcus, Lachnospiraceae_NK3A20_group, Ruminiclostridium, and Lachnospiraceae_UCG-008. RPG significantly increased the concentrations of acetate, propionate, butyrate, and total volatile fatty acid in the rumen. Ruminal fluid metabolomics analysis showed that RPG supplementation could significantly regulate the synthesis of amino acids digested by protozoa in the rumen. Correlation analysis of the ruminal microbiome and metabolome revealed some potential relationships between major bacterial abundance and metabolite concentrations. It was concluded that RPG supplementation of different doses can change the diversity of microorganisms in the rumen and affect the rumen fermentation pattern and microbial metabolism at a daily supplement of 350 g of RPG which might be considered as the ideal dose which need further verification. Earlier, they also reported that the lactation performance, serum biochemical indexes, and serum metabolomics significantly improved the indexes related to NEB, such as NEFA, BHBA, AST and GLU, and alleviated the lipolysis effect after RPG supplementation (Wang et al., 2020). They also testified that the RPG supplementation promoted the proliferation of endometrial cells by stimulating the IGFs and mTOR/AKT pathway in the early post-natal endometrium of dairy cows.
RPG improved bioenergetics of transition cows by delivering glucose to the small intestine which increases the circulating insulin and decreases blood NEFA concentrations. Although the mechanisms are not completely understood, RPG supplementation appears to have benefited the immune system due to decreased inflammatory response on day 7 after calving. Results demonstrated that RPG did not increase MY in early-lactation or alter DMI. Interestingly, RPG supplementation had no effect on faecal pH, but treatment groups saw a marked reduction in pH after calving. Although literature is scarce on faecal pH during the transition period, we conclude that RPG supplementation did not cause rapid fermentation in the hind-gut. Although there were no differences for circulating glucose concentration, RPG decreased circulating NEFA and BHB concentrations post-parturition. Additionally, RPG tended to increase blood insulin concentration (McCarthy et al., 2019).
Dietary supplementation with RPG in early lactation did not affect DMI in the present study. For instance, Li et al. (2019) reported that the DMI of transition cows was not affected by the RPG supplementation. Supplementation with RPG in transition cows improved the postpartum lactation performance (increased milk yield), increased the degree of negative energy balance, and presumably reduced the incidence of inflammation. Wang et al. (2020) confirmed that the percentage of PRG released in rumen was 45.97 % through experiments, it is necessary to study the effect of RPG’s rumen degradation part on rumen fermentation. The rumen fermentation parameters including pH and propionate were affected by different doses of RPG supplementation, indicating that RPG supplementation affected rumen environment. Previously, Li et al. (2019) reported that the 200 g RPG supply did not change the apparent digestibility of the CP, EE, ADF, and NDF during transition period in dairy cows.
Rumen-protected glucose did not impact serum concentration of glucose before or after feeding, but the change in insulin concentration (post-feeding – pre-feeding) was greater for the control cows compared with cows that received the three doses of RPG. Crude protein (CP) intake and milk urea nitrogen (MUN) increased linearly with treatment, but dry matter intake (DMI) and milk yield were unaffected by treatment. Concentrations of progesterone were unaffected by treatment, and pregnancy risk at first insemination was reduced by treatment. Rumen-protected glucose failed to increase serum insulin or progesterone concentrations (Sauls et al., 2018).
McCarty et al., 2020 results showed increased concentration of circulating insulin (27%), lower nonesterified fatty acids (28%), and lower postpartum β-hydroxybutyrate (24%) in RPG-fed cows. Overall, circulating lipopolysaccharide-binding protein and haptoglobin did not differ by treatment, but at 7 DIM, RPG-fed cows had decreased lipopolysaccharide-binding protein and haptoglobin concentrations (31 and 27%, respectively) compared with controls. Supplemental RPG improved some biomarkers of postabsorptive energetics and inflammation during the periparturient period, changes primarily characterized by increased insulin and decreased nonesterified fatty acids concentrations, with a concomitant reduction in acute phase proteins without changing milk production and composition.
CONCLUSION
The supplementation of RPG to the diet could reduce the NEB of cows in early lactation by regulating lipid mobilization and glucose absorption. However, because RPG was coated with hydrogenated fat in the current study, further research should focus on integrated metabolomics and metagenomics analysis of rumen microbes to identify the effects of RPG and coating fat on functional and metabolomic attributes of the rumen microbiota. The key findings of studies shows that supplementation with RPG in transition cows improved the postpartum lactation performance (increased milk yield), increased the degree of negative energy balance, and presumably reduced the incidence of inflammation. RPG significantly reduced serum concentrations of BHBA, NEFA, and AST, while increased serum GLU concentration to alleviate NEB in cows, without affecting the production performance of cows. Furthermore, untargeted metabolomics analysis of serum showed that the supplementation of RPG could reduce lipid metabolism, down-regulate metabolites including LPE and LA, and might inhibit PL-mediated inflammation. Further research is needed to study how the RPG supply influences the energy redistribution during the transition period in dairy cows. The dose optimization and side effect need to be studied carefully for validating the use. The importance of RPG at different stages of life and in different clinical cases along with reproductive performances needs to be studied in details.
Punita Kumari1, Abhishek Kumar Singh2 and Shailendra Kumar Rajak3
- Touring Veterinary Officer, Animal & Fisheries Resources Department, Government of Bihar, India
- Assistant Professor, Animal Nutrition, FVAS-RGSC, BHU, Mirzapur, UP, India
- Subject Matter Specialist, KVK, Pipra Kothi, East Champaran, Bihar, India.
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