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Maternal rumen‐protected methionine supplementation during late‐pregnancy affects calf development and growth during early postnatal life
Author(s) -
Alharthi Abdulrahman Salem M,
Batistel Fernanda,
Parys Claudia,
Helmbrecht Ariane,
Loor Juan
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.31.1_supplement.lb293
Subject(s) - colostrum , pregnancy , zoology , rumen , offspring , biology , fetus , litter , immunology , food science , agronomy , antibody , genetics , fermentation
Pregnancy and early life are critical periods of plasticity during which the fetus and neonate may be influenced by environmental factors such as nutrition. Evidence indicates that the maternal nutrition during pregnancy can affect offspring development. However, it is not clear if this is an effect acquired during pregnancy (e.g., greater maternal‐fetus nutrient transport) or a colostrum effect (e.g., high‐quality colostrum). Thus, the objective of this study was to investigate if increasing Met (a methyl donor) supply during late‐pregnancy affects developmental parameters at birth and subsequent growth and if it is an utero‐placenta or colostrum‐dependent response. The study included 39 female calves born to cows fed a basal control [CON; 1.47 Mcal/kg dry matter (DM) and 15.3% crude protein (CP)] diet with no added methionine or CON plus ethyl cellulose rumen‐protected methionine (MET; Mepron®, Evonik Industries AG, Germany). The MET was fed during the last 28 days of pregnancy at a rate of 0.09% of diet DM. At birth, calves were randomly allocated considering dam treatment and colostrum as follows: 1) calves from CON cows and colostrum from CON cows (n=9); 2) calves from CON cows and colostrum from MET cows (n=9); 3) calves from MET cows and colostrum from MET cows (n=11); and 4) calves from MET cows and colostrum from CON cows (n=10). Cows were milked within 4 hours and colostrum amount and quality were recorded. Calves were fed 3.8 L of colostrum. All calves were housed and managed in the same fashion during the first 9 weeks of life. Body weight, hip and wither height, hip width and body length were measure at birth and weekly through weaning (42 days of age) and until 9 weeks of age. Compared with CON, calves from dams fed MET had greater hip height ( P = 0.02; 81.0 vs 78.5 cm) at birth. However, body weight at birth ( P = 0.67; 41.7 vs 41.1 kg), hip width ( P = 0.15; 15.8 vs 16.4 cm), wither height ( P = 0.11; 77.3 vs 75.8 cm), body length ( P = 0.51; 110 vs 108.9 cm) as well as colostrum quality ( P = 0.95; 55.4 vs 52.4 IgG) and quantity ( P = 0.80; 5.9 vs 5.7 kg) were not affected by maternal treatment. Over the first nine weeks of life, there was no colostrum effect for any of the growth variables measured. However, compared with CON, calves from dams fed MET had greater body weight ( P = 0.03; 60.8 vs 57.3 kg), hip height ( P = 0.02; 87.7 vs 85.7 cm), wither height ( P = 0.05; 83.5 vs 81.9 cm), and average daily gain (P = 0.01; 0.69 vs 0.60 kg/day). Hip width ( P = 0.73; 19.7 vs 19.6 cm) and body length ( P = 0.24; 122.8 vs 124.8 cm) were not affected by maternal MET. Results indicate that neonatal heifer calf growth during the pre‐weaning and early post‐weaning period were enhanced by increasing MET supply of the cow during late‐gestation.