MADISON, Wis. — Cows are called upon to do a lot in the three weeks leading up to calving and the three weeks following calving. This transition period can take a toll as cows experience big changes in diet and environment while dealing with fluctuating energy demands.
“We throw a lot at transition cows in a really small timeframe,” said Kimberley Morrill, who holds a doctorate in animal physiology. “The transition cow deals with a great deal of stress, but feeding an effective bacilli-based probiotic during the transition period can help this animal.”
Morrill is the technical service manager for probiotics and silage inoculants at Novonesis. She discussed the benefits of feeding probiotics to transition cows during her presentation at World Dairy Expo entitled, “Lifecycle Feeding of Probiotics: Supporting the Transition Cow.”
Feeding probiotics throughout an animal’s lifecycle can help mitigate challenges during each stage of life, Morrill said. The transition cow’s unique stressors include fetal development, metabolic and immune challenges, and changing energy demands. An increase in cortisol is observed especially at calving, while serotonin levels drop.
“When animals receive a daily probiotic, we see higher serotonin levels — that happy, feel-good hormone — and lower cortisol or stress hormone levels,” Morrill said.
Feeding probiotics to a transition cow can help improve dry matter intake and support digestion, absorption and immune function, leading to higher body weight and better milk production efficiency.
Energy demands skyrocket the day before calving, and Morrill said it is normal for cows to drop in DMI. However, it is the amount of decrease that is the concern. Ensuring cows receive plenty of nutrients beforehand and return to a normal DMI soon after calving is the goal.
Transition cows experience a negative energy balance due to dietary changes as they move from a lactating diet to a low-energy, high-fiber diet to a closeup diet. During this time, cows also deal with pen moves, which causes disruption to social hierarchy.
“There are some pretty serious dietary changes thrown at the transition cow,” Morrill said. “Far-off dry cows might not be getting the highest quality feedstuffs. In the closeup pen, cows are still eating a high-fiber diet as we start to bring energy up. Then they hit the lactating herd and are thrown right in the frying pan with a high-energy, moderate fiber diet.”
A negative energy balance can cause ketosis as well as immune suppression. From there, an increase in mastitis, metritis and retained placenta is likely, Morrill said.
“At the end of the day, there is the long-term potential for a reduction in production and impaired reproduction,” she said.
Feeding an effective probiotic can help increase DMI during the transition period while supporting rumination and digestibility and reducing inflammation. Probiotics encourage cows to eat more feed before and after calving while also ensuring the nutrients in the feed they eat are absorbed and digested.
“When we feed an effective probiotic in the transition cow period, we see an improvement in dry matter intake prepartum compared to cows that don’t receive a probiotic,” Morrill said. “It also supports dry matter intake postpartum. Cows receiving a bacilli-based probiotic prepartum return to their postpartum dry matter intake earlier and maintain intake.”
Digestion can be an issue for the cow in transition, even if intake appears to be normal.
“Just because she’s eating feed doesn’t mean she’s utilizing it,” Morill said. “I want to make sure these cows are able to break down the feed. Feeding an effective bacilli-based probiotic produces the necessary enzymes to do this.”
An increase in inflammation is also noticed prior to calving, which can lead to swelling and edema.
“Any time we see an increase in stress and inflammation, leaky gut can occur,” Morrill said.
Decreases in digestibility of feedstuffs coupled with inflammation create an activated immune system. While all this is occurring, nutrient absorption decreases due to rumination challenges, and energy demands rise.
Probiotics support the digestibility of both feedstuffs and the total mixed ration. Probiotics fed during transition help increase absorption rates and reduce the risk of leaky gut by supporting barrier function.
“Transition cows are considered immunocompromised animals,” Morrill said. “When feeding a probiotic, we’re able to modulate the immune response so the immune system can more rapidly detect an issue and respond in a controlled manner. It is able to shut down that immune response once it’s healthy again.”
Probiotics can inhibit pathogens, such as salmonella, E. coli and Clostridium. Through pathogen adhesion, probiotics can coat the gastrointestinal tract wall, preventing pathogens from entering.
“They can still transfer through, but we don’t have to worry about pathogen insults,” Morrill said. “There is pathogen inhibition, and we’re able to kill off the bacteria. The pathogen floats through, but it can’t attach to the GI tract and is going to go out through the manure.”
For example, prior to using a probiotic, Morrill said a 1,400-cow dairy had 10% of cows suffering from health events in the first 60 days of lactation. After going on a two-strain lactic acid-based probiotic, this number dropped to 5.8%. When they changed to a four-strain probiotic, health events such as displaced abomasum and retained placenta decreased to less than 5%.
“Our goal with feeding a probiotic is to support the symbiosis and health balance of bacteria in the GI tract and not have pathogens outweigh it,” Morrill said.
Cows receiving probiotics are not losing body condition or body weight in the transition period and are seeing improvement in milk production efficiency for the first 60 days of lactation, Morrill said. In addition, a greater percentage of cows produce high-quality colostrum when receiving a probiotic.
In one study, 87% of cows receiving a probiotic had a Brix colostrum score greater than 23%, while only 56.5% of control cows produced colostrum of this quality.
“Now we have healthy transition cows and high-quality colostrum to give our calf the best start,” Morrill said.
Feeding probiotics can help make the transition phase easier on cows, resulting in less time spent in catchup and recovery mode.
“Calving is a major physiological stress on the animal,” Morrill said. “We can reduce the risk of challenges through a probiotic and get cows back on feed sooner. It sets up both the cow and calf for a successful future.”
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here