Understanding nutritional needs and management during the neonatal period is crucial for reducing mortality rates and improving the overall health of calves, thereby impacting the economic viability of farming operations. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate performance differences between calves fed dam's milk or milk replacer (MR) at high milk allowances during their first week of life. Twenty Brown Swiss calves (both male and female) were fed their dam's colostrum and transition milk for the first 6 feedings twice daily in unlimited amounts.

Free monosaccharides are important carbohydrates in milk, providing both basic and bioactive nutritional benefits; however, the content and composition of free monosaccharides in milk from different species are still not well understood. The aim of this study was to develop a highly sensitive and accurate liquid chromatography (LC)-MS method for the precise quantification of free monosaccharides in milk from 8 species, including human, cow, goat, sheep, yak, camel, horse, and donkey. The chromatographic conditions and MS parameters were systematically optimized to ensure high resolution, minimal matrix effects, and low detection limits for all 8 target monosaccharides.

This study explores the complex relationships among ovine milk minerals (Ca, P, Na, K, Mg, K, Cl, respectively) and different factors employing generalized additive mixed models (GAMM). The GAMM included milk yield (MY), parity, and breed as parametric terms, and casein, fat, lactose, pH, SCS, DIM, and sampling day as smooth functions. The objectives were to investigate how these factors could affect minerals in sheep milk and to assess whether their patterns change over time and across different concentrations of major milk components.

The objective of this study was to assess the effects of the addition of the corticosteroid hydrocortisone aceponate (HCA) to a procaine penicillin G intramammary infusion on clinical outcomes and bacteriological cure rates of naturally occurring bovine mastitis. This prospective, randomized, superiority and noninferiority, blinded, positive-controlled intervention study included clinical and subclinical arms. For the clinical arm, cows were randomly assigned within farm to be treated with penicillin and HCA (IVP) or penicillin alone (CP) on 3 occasions at 24-h intervals following collection of a milk sample.

Effective isolation of bacterial pathogens for bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is a critical step for accurate diagnosis of the agent associated with this disease on the dairy. Limited information is available on factors associated with herd-level bacterial pathogen recovery for BRD clinical cases, which are important data to help identify strategies to support the successful collection of a minimum number of each organism over time to generate cumulative antibiogram susceptibility testing reports.

Animals use their sense of smell in various situations, including foraging, selecting mates, and assessing predation risks. Consequently, odors are likely to affect numerous handling and management practices involving farm animals. Cattle have a well-developed sense of olfaction that may play a larger role in their everyday life than is currently considered. The current body of research on cattle olfactory abilities is, however, surprisingly scarce. The aim of this study was to investigate if cows can detect and discriminate 4 odors of natural, nonsocial origin, and if any of the specific odors evoke more interest (measured as sniffing time) than others.

Over recent decades, more open housing systems with partially uncovered functional barn areas have become increasingly common in both organic and conventional dairy farming in temperate climates. These open housings can enhance cow welfare by improving air quality, providing access to varying stimuli, including rain and sunlight, and allowing more space for social retreat. However, open housings may also expose cows to potential challenges from extreme weather, even in temperate climates. This review synthesizes English-language scientific literature from 2000 to 2023 on animal welfare challenges under less weather-protected housing conditions and evaluates various mitigation measures.

Advancements in radio frequency identification (RFID) technology offer potential for improving traceability during artificial insemination, yet the influence of different radio wave frequencies on semen quality and fertility remains unclear. The size of the low-frequency (LF; 134.2 kHz) chips is convenient for handling in the barn, whereas technical characteristics of high-frequency (HF; 13.56 MHz) chips allow its insertion in the straw for field traceability. Therefore, this study evaluated the effects of LF and HF RFID chips on bovine sperm motility and fertility outcomes.

Lameness, defined as an impaired gait, impacts cow welfare and performance, compromising future health and production, and increasing culling risk. Untargeted milk lipidomics, together with the use of machine learning methods, have shown promise in identifying potential biomarkers for the early detection of lameness, before the development of visible clinical lameness. Prediction of early lameness would allow for the earlier implementation of management and treatment strategies, ultimately reducing the negative consequences.

Optimizing genetic selection for the modern dairy herd is a key component for improving health and production and reducing environmental footprints. The objective of this retrospective study was to estimate the effects of genetic progress on environmental outcomes by using a comprehensive, whole-farm, process-based model, the Ruminant Farm System, which simulates individual animals and their unique daily events to model animal and herd production and environmental effects. In this study, the selection index used was Dairy Wellness Profit (DWP$).

Noninvasive biomarkers of rumen function are required to develop precision nutrition with no constraints on animal welfare. Alterations in rumen function caused by diets with high acidogenic potential may be used as a model where fermentation affects the profile of volatile organic compounds (VOC) of the rumen fluid headspace and other matrices of the host ruminant, such as breath, urine, feces, milk, or sweat. We used selected-ion flow-tube mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS) to test the potential of the volatolome of breath, rumen fluid, urine, feces, sweat, and milk to discriminate contrasting diets in lactating dairy cows.

Twinning in dairy cattle poses substantial risks for both cows and calves, including increased rates of calving difficulties, stillbirths, postpartum complications, and negative effects on calf viability and growth. These challenges lead to substantial economic losses and raise serious concerns for animal health and welfare. Consequently, selecting against twin births in German Holstein cattle could be beneficial. In this study, we analyzed the trait twin birth by estimating variance components and genetic correlations with other traits using population-wide data from German Holstein cattle.

The objective of this experiment was to investigate the effect of concentrate supplement level and type on the milk fat production of grazing dairy cows in early to mid-lactation during a high-risk period for reduced milk fat synthesis. Eighty Holstein Friesian dairy cows averaging (mean ± SD) 55 ± 14 DIM were blocked based on their pre-experimental milk production and parity and randomly assigned to 1 of 5 dietary treatments: a pasture-only (P) control supplemented with 0.27 kg of DM/cow per day of a mineral and vitamin pack (P0); P supplemented with 2 kg of DM/cow per day of an industry-standard concentrate (P2); P supplemented with 4 kg of DM/cow per day of an industry-standard concentrate (P4); P supplemented with 4 kg of DM/cow per day of a concentrate containing 10% sodium hydroxide-treated straw (P4S); and P supplemented with 4 kg of DM/cow per day of a concentrate containing 5% calcium salts of fatty acids (P4F).

2-Methyloxolane (MeOx) is a promising candidate for replacing hexane as a solvent for defatting soybean meal (SBM). However, the use of MeOx requires adjustments of the oil extraction process that may affect the nutritive value of SBM. This study aims to ensure that process modifications due to the use of MeOx do not affect the protein value of SBM for dairy cows. Sixteen primiparous Holstein dairy cows were included in a 4 × 4 Latin square design experiment. The 4 dietary treatments consisted of hexane-defatted SBM, MeOx-defatted SBM, or a combination in various proportions: 100% hexane-defatted SBM (control diet, HEX), 67% hexane-defatted SBM plus 33% MeOx-defatted SBM (33MeOx), 33% hexane-defatted SBM plus 67% MeOx-defatted SBM (67MeOx), and 100% MeOx-defatted SBM (100MeOx).

Fermented dairy products are beneficial to cognitive health. Fermentation-released bioactive peptides have the potential to contribute to the neuroprotective effects of fermented dairy products. However, known neuroprotective peptides are mostly prepared by enzymatic hydrolysis, and physicochemical screening of food-derived functional peptides typically overlooks the interference of biotransport after ingestion. Thus, we aimed to identify neuroprotective peptides from casein fermented by Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp.

This randomized positively controlled intervention study assessed the superiority of presynchrony by a single i.m. injection of PGF2α given 3 or 4 d before commencement of an Ovsynch and progesterone program, compared with no presynchrony, in anestrous cows. Additionally, noninferiority of a novel intravaginal progesterone-releasing device (Ulti-mate) compared with a commercially available device (CIDR) was assessed. Cows (n = 1,557) not detected in estrus by 12 or 13 d before the start of the seasonal breeding program (d 0) and calved > 13 d, were blocked within herd by lactation (i.e., primiparous vs.

It has been suggested that local breeds might be more suited for agroecological systems compared with high input, high output breeds, such as the Holstein dairy breed. We investigated whether 3 native Dutch dual-purpose (NLdp) cattle breeds and the Holstein perform differently across herd environments. We compared 490 farms in the Netherlands that had breed fractions summing up to the equivalent of at least 10 purebred NLdp cows with neighboring farms with predominantly Holstein. Herd environment was characterized by 49 farm characteristics derived from national databases and included average animal performance, feed used, soil type, farm size, and use of concentrates and fertilizer.

The focus of this research was to evaluate changes in the secondary structure of β-LG induced by supercritical CO2 (ScCO2) treatment of whole milk powder (WMP). Processing conditions of 63°C/200 bar and 75°C/300 bar were chosen for further investigation because they produced the highest reduction in antigenicity, 42.9% ± 2.83% at 63°C/200 bar and 54.75% ± 2.43% at 75°C/300 bar, respectively, via sandwich ELISA. Orbitrap fusion liquid chromatography-MS/MS detected the presence of capric acid under processing conditions of 63°C/200 bar and lactose molecules at 75°C/300 bar, and these post translational modifications were established to be unique to ScCO2 processing.

β-galactosidase (B-gal) is a vital enzyme used in the food industry to reduce lactose from dairy ingredients through hydrolysis and to synthesize galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS), a known bifidogenic prebiotic, from galactose moieties through transgalactosylation. To favor transgalactosylation, high carbohydrate concentrations must be available to accept the galactose moiety. Since many dairy products rely on sweeteners for flavor and texture, B-gal from GRAS status Lactobacillus bulgaricus strains LB11, YB1, L.

Milk has high risk for microbial contamination. RSQ01, a bacteriocin, previously has shown potentiality for pasteurized milk preservation. This study analyzed the effects of RSQ01 on milk microbiota by comparison of bacterial number and composition in 3 pasteurized milk groups: controls without RSQ01, treatment group with the addition of 2 × MIC (low concentration) and 4 × MIC RSQ01 (high concentration). Integrated 16S rDNA sequencing and metagenomics of these groups after 3 d of storage showed inhibition of RSQ01 on microbiota diversity.