METABOLIC DISEASES OF HIGH YIELDERS: ADVANCES IN PREVENTIVE MEASURES

METABOLIC DISEASES OF HIGH YIELDERS: ADVANCES IN PREVENTIVE MEASURES

Divya Patel¹, Nutan Chouhan², Garima Kansal¹

1. PhD Scholar, Division of Livestock Production Management, NDRI, Karnal, Haryana
2. PhD Scholar, Division of Animal Nutrition, NDRI, Karnal, Haryana

Email: ddnv4321@gmail.com

INTRODUCTION

Metabolic diseases most often occur in transition period, transition period can be defined as the period 2-3 weeks before and after parturition in dairy animals. During this period, dairy animal undergo transition from gestating to non-gestating and non-lactating to lactating state. Various abrupt changes occur during this period like physiological, nutritional, metabolical, endocrinological and behavioural changes. Metabolic diseases also known as production disease because high yielding animals are more susceptible. Nutritional management during this period plays a very significant role to prevent all these problems. Metabolic problems affect the production performance of the animals.  India has the world’s largest dairy herd with 125.34 million milch animals, producing 198 million tones of milk. Poor transition period, in this way, poses great economic loss in terms of low production and poor reproduction along with culling of the affected animals. There are several metabolic disorders identified in dairy cows during the first month after parturition and the most frequent ones are ketosis (acetonemia), Fatty liver, parturient paresis (milk fever), downer cow syndrome, hypomagnesemic tetany (wheat pasture poisoning) and Post parturient hemoglobinuria

CHANGES DURING TRANSITION PERIODS

PREVENTIVE MEASURES

Cows yielding more than 20 kg/day and buffaloes yielding more than 15 kg per day are high yielding animals.

DRY PERIOD

The dry period is a critical phase of the lactation cycle to increase milk yield during the following lactation and minimize metabolic problems at or immediately after calving optimum 60 days dry period is beneficial. Involution of the udder takes place during this period. The principal reason for the dry period is to allow the secretary tissue of the udder to involute. During this period, the secretary cells of udder actually break down and are reabsorbed, and a new set of secretary cells is formed. This cell renewal process takes approximately six weeks and, if a cow is allowed no dry period at all, will result in a loss of milk of at least 30% in the subsequent lactation. And second one for fetal development during the last eight weeks before calving the fetus gains almost 60% of its birth weight, an overall rate of gain for the cow of about 0.75 kg/day. At the very least, the cow must be fed for fetus growth.  For replenishment of body reserves adequate mineral nutrition during the dry period is very important. If the cow is very weak or underweight, the dry period helps her to replenish body reserves and she may be fed to gain about 20-25 kg body weight during the dry period. The high-producing cow will have severely depleted her body reserves of minerals, especially Ca and P, during her lactation. These reserves can only be completely replenished when the cow is dry.

FEEDING STRATEGIES FOR HIGH PRODUCING DAIRY CATTLE

         Nutrient requirements vary with the stage of lactation and gestation. Five distinct feeding phases can be defined to attain optimum production, reproduction and health of dairy cows.

PHASE 1: EARLY LACTATION – 0 TO 70 DAYS POSTPARTUM

         Feed intake is the key factor in maintaining high milk production. Each additional kg of dry mater consumed can support 2-2.4 kg more milk. The roughages should be of high quality with not more than 40-45 % NDF. A minimum level of fiber is necessary because excessive levels of concentrates (over 60 percent of the total DM) fed during early lactation can cause acidosis and low milk fat percentage. A minimum level of fiber is necessary because excessive levels of concentrates fed during early lactation can cause acidosis and low milk fat percentage. The roughage should not be ground or pelleted but should be chopped to a length of 2 inches or longer. To avoid any digestive problems (e.g. acidosis, depressed intake), concentrates should be added gradually at a rate of about 0.5 to 0.7 kg/day for the first two weeks. Do not feed more than 2.5-3.5 kg of concentrates per feeding. 16-18% CP can support 20 kg milk in cows and 15 kg in buffaloes. For those cows or buffaloes yielding more milk, the ideal protein content of the ration should be 17-19 % with 30-35 % RDP. This much amount of protein support 20 kg milk in cows and 15 kg in buffaloes. The energy content of the ration is increased by feeding of full-fat oilseeds like cottonseed, sunflower seed and soybean. They are also rich in TDN, thus their supplementation in the diet is useful for meeting energy requirements of high yielding animals. Cottonseed is the most popular amongst farmer and it also helps in increasing milk fat. The energy content of the ration can also be increased by using fats or oil at 4% in the concentrate mixture or 0.5 kg / day

PHASE 2. PEAK DM INTAKE – SECOND 10 WEEKS POSTPARTUM

During this phase the feed intake is near maximum and can supply nutrient needs. Concentrate intake should not exceed 2.5 percent of the cow’s body weight and intake of good quality forage should be minimum 1.5 percent of the cow’s body weight (DM basis) to maintain rumen function and normal levels of milk fat. Animals are expected to take dry matter at 4 % of body weight. Protein requirements during mid lactation are lower than in early lactation. Therefore rations for dairy cows in mid-lactation should contain 15-17%    crude protein Feed forages and grain several times a day.  If urea is included in the rations, limit urea to 100 g per cow per day.

PHASE 3. MID – TO LATE LACTATION – 140 TO 305 DAYS POSTPARTUM

Young cows should receive additional nutrients for growth (20 percent during 1^st lactation and 10 % during 2^nd lactation of the maintenance requirement Milk production is declining, the cow is pregnant, and nutrient intake will easily be met or exceed requirements. Concentrate feeding should be at a level to meet milk production requirements and the animals begin to replace body weight lost during early lactation.

PHASE 4. DRY PERIOD – 60 TO 14 DAYS BEFORE PARTURITION

Rations should be formulated to specifically meet the nutrient requirements of dry cows: body maintenance, fetal growth, and for replacing any additional body weight not replaced during phase. Pregnant animals are to be offered extra nutrients during the last two months of gestation This is necessary to enable the animal to withstand the stress of parturition and to maintain the persistency of milk production during the subsequent lactation period.The provision of extra nutrients should be given in the form of concentrate mixture and not as forage because roughages are not as efficient as concentrates in increasing the body weight. The rest of the ration must contain sufficient green feeds so that the colostrum secreted after parturition should be rich in vitamin A.  DMI will be near 2 % of the cow’s body weight. A minimum of 12 % CP in the DM is recommended. Meet Ca and P needs, but avoid large excesses. Ca intakes of 60 to 80 g and P intakes of 30 to 40 g are sufficient for most cows. Dry cow rations above 0.6 percent calcium and 0 .4 percent phosphorus (DM basis) have substantially increased milk fever problems. Provide adequate amounts of vitamin A, D, and E in rations to improve calf survival and lower retained placenta and milk fever problems. Trace minerals, including selenium for most producers, should be adequately supplemented in dry cow diets.

PHASE 5. TRANSITION PERIOD – 14 DAYS BEFORE TO 14 DAYS AFTER PARTURITION

During the last 3 days prior to calving, the amount of concentrate mixture should be reduced and a little warm bran is fed to keep the animal in laxative condition before calving. After parturition, the cow /buffalo should be given fresh warm water and a mash consisting of 1 kg wheat bran, 1-1.5 kg ground grain, 0.5 kg jaggery and 25 g each of common salt and mineral mixture. This mash may be continued for 3 to 4 days after calving; the regular feed may be gradually introduced to the cow. Some concentrate mixture, if not previously fed, should be fed starting two weeks before freshening. Introduction of concentrate mixture is necessary to begin changing the rumen bacteria population over from an all-forage digestion population to a mixed population of forage and grain digesters. Feeding some of this additional protein in the form of non-degradable protein may be beneficial in supplying amino acids for fetal growth. CHALLENGE FEEDING

• Challenge feeding starts two weeks before the expected date of calving (Steaming up), if no concentrate is fed during the dry period.
• High milk producing animals are fed increasing quantity of feed challenging them to produce at their maximum potential.
• This challenge feeding will condition her digestive system for the increased quantity of feed to provide sufficient nutrients to initiate lactation on a higher plane.
• This effect has been found to have higher total milk yield in the lactation. This helps in adaptation of the rumen microbes with the grain/concentrate during the ensuing lactation period when nutrient requirement cannot be met, especially in high-yielding (more than 20 kg milk) cows without grain or concentrates.
• Generally, the animals are started with 1.5 to 2.0 kg concentrate mixture (@0.3 to 0.5 % of body weight) on the date 2 weeks before calving,
• Followed by an increment of 0.3 to 0.5 kg daily, so that they will be receiving about 1 kg concentrates mixture per 100 kg body weight at calving.

This is also called challenge or lead feeding, as it is the practice of feeding higher levels of concentrate to challenge the cow to reach her maximum milk production potential. Conclusion

It is accepted that reproduction is important for profitability of dairy farms, and nutritional status and metabolic health are both associated with successful reproduction.  Metabolic diseases have great economic importance in high yielders because they affect the production potential of animal and ultimately cause economic loss. If the animal phasing periparturient problems have delayed return to ovulation, lower pregnancy per insemination, and increase pregnancy loss.  Therefore, adopt the good nutritional and managemental program that reduces the risk of disease metabolic disorders.

https://www.pashudhanpraharee.com/advances-in-bovine-colostrum-biology/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4693199/

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