Predicting and enhancing lifetime resilience in dairy cattle
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Nottingham
Department Name: School of Veterinary Medicine and Sci
Abstract
Resilience in animals refers to their capacity to cope with short-term environmental disturbances, with a fast return to normal status and it is an acknowledged beneficial trait of farmed livestock. Resilient cows are considered those with a high probability of completing multiple lactations, with good reproductive performance, that encounter few health problems which they overcome easily, and that are efficient and consistent in their milk production. A major contributor to an individuals' ability to be robust or resilient over their life-course is the "Developmental Origins of Health and Disease" (DOHaD), whereby insults to the developing embryo/foetus (e.g. nutritional insults, inflammatory response to disease/toxins, therapeutics, elevated concentrations of hormones) at specific developmentally sensitive time points, can alter an individuals' susceptibility to disease.
Resilience in dairy cattle at both individual and herd level is therefore considered critical to optimise health, welfare, and productivity and to reduce the environmental footprint of dairy farming as the industry targets net-zero. Rather than considering health or welfare according to individual diseases, traits or syndromes, enhanced resilience allows the possibility of a wide-ranging enhancement of health and wellbeing. Therefore, enhancing resilience could provide a step change to reduce endemic disease in dairy cows. The aim of this 12-month study is to quantify in-utero environmental factors that contribute to post-partum lifetime resilience in dairy cows, using a very large set of data (>30,000 cow lifetime records).
Our hypothesis for the research is that perturbations to dairy cows during developmentally sensitive stages of early pregnancy influence lifetime resilience of their offspring. We will quantify and predict resilience using a large dataset containing detailed lifetime records for the offspring that can be mapped back to a wide of maternal-mediated stressors experienced by the offspring at specific stages of pregnancy. We will measure the effect of known on-farm stressors during specific stages of pregnancy and evaluate how these underpin lifetime resilience. During the 12 month project we will;
1) Produce an optimised, validated predictive model of lifetime resilience for dairy cows from events that occur while in utero.
2) Identify and quantify the major factors and events during pregnancy that impact on lifetime resilience and thereby evaluate the extent to which resilience can be enhanced through optimised herd management.
Outcomes:
i) A method to predict lifetime resilience for dairy cows at birth, co-developed by farmers and vets, to inform selective breeding programmes on-farm.
ii) Identification of major factors during pregnancy (and their relative importance) that impact the lifetime resilience of the offspring to inform management strategies to optimise resilience on-farm.
HOW WILL THIS HELP FARMERS?
With an accurate knowledge of lifetime resilience for dairy heifers at birth, a farmer will be able to; i) avoid breeding from replacements with low resilience (evidence indicates that in utero insults can be transmitted via genetic changes, giving transgenerational effects), ii) minimise the factors during pregnancy that have a deleterious impact on resilience (success being monitored by an overall herd resilience score), iii) in the short term, use improved management strategies for the subset of animals with low scores, to mitigate their low resilience.
Translation to farmer:
Our industry partner has developed a software platform to house the models, construct the resilience predictions real time and deliver results direct to farmers - therefore the route to translate research findings to practice is already in place.
Resilience in dairy cattle at both individual and herd level is therefore considered critical to optimise health, welfare, and productivity and to reduce the environmental footprint of dairy farming as the industry targets net-zero. Rather than considering health or welfare according to individual diseases, traits or syndromes, enhanced resilience allows the possibility of a wide-ranging enhancement of health and wellbeing. Therefore, enhancing resilience could provide a step change to reduce endemic disease in dairy cows. The aim of this 12-month study is to quantify in-utero environmental factors that contribute to post-partum lifetime resilience in dairy cows, using a very large set of data (>30,000 cow lifetime records).
Our hypothesis for the research is that perturbations to dairy cows during developmentally sensitive stages of early pregnancy influence lifetime resilience of their offspring. We will quantify and predict resilience using a large dataset containing detailed lifetime records for the offspring that can be mapped back to a wide of maternal-mediated stressors experienced by the offspring at specific stages of pregnancy. We will measure the effect of known on-farm stressors during specific stages of pregnancy and evaluate how these underpin lifetime resilience. During the 12 month project we will;
1) Produce an optimised, validated predictive model of lifetime resilience for dairy cows from events that occur while in utero.
2) Identify and quantify the major factors and events during pregnancy that impact on lifetime resilience and thereby evaluate the extent to which resilience can be enhanced through optimised herd management.
Outcomes:
i) A method to predict lifetime resilience for dairy cows at birth, co-developed by farmers and vets, to inform selective breeding programmes on-farm.
ii) Identification of major factors during pregnancy (and their relative importance) that impact the lifetime resilience of the offspring to inform management strategies to optimise resilience on-farm.
HOW WILL THIS HELP FARMERS?
With an accurate knowledge of lifetime resilience for dairy heifers at birth, a farmer will be able to; i) avoid breeding from replacements with low resilience (evidence indicates that in utero insults can be transmitted via genetic changes, giving transgenerational effects), ii) minimise the factors during pregnancy that have a deleterious impact on resilience (success being monitored by an overall herd resilience score), iii) in the short term, use improved management strategies for the subset of animals with low scores, to mitigate their low resilience.
Translation to farmer:
Our industry partner has developed a software platform to house the models, construct the resilience predictions real time and deliver results direct to farmers - therefore the route to translate research findings to practice is already in place.
Technical Summary
Resilience in animals refers to a capacity to cope with short-term environmental perturbations with a fast return to normal status; it is an acknowledged beneficial trait of farmed livestock. Resilience in dairy cattle at both individual and herd level is considered critical to optimise health, welfare, and productivity and to reduce the environmental footprint of dairy farming. Enhancing resilience has the potential to provide a step change to reduce endemic disease in dairy cows.
A major contributor to an individuals' ability to be robust or resilient over their life-course is the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD), whereby exposure of the gametes or developing embryo/foetus to adverse conditions at specific developmentally sensitive time points in utero, can alter an individuals' susceptibility to disease.
Our hypothesis for this research is that perturbations to dairy cows during developmentally sensitive stages of early pregnancy influence lifetime resilience of their offspring. We will quantify and predict resilience using a large dataset containing detailed lifetime records for offspring (n>30,000) that can be mapped back to a wide range of maternal-mediated stressors experienced by the offspring at specific stages of pregnancy. We will measure the effect of known on-farm stressors during specific stages of pregnancy and evaluate how these underpin lifetime resilience. Project aims are; i) to produce an optimised, validated predictive model of lifetime resilience for dairy cows from events that occur while in utero and ii) to identify and quantify the major factors and events during pregnancy that impact most on lifetime resilience and thereby evaluate the extent to which resilience can be enhanced through optimised herd management.
With this knowledge, a farmer will be able to use breeding and management strategies to maximise resilience of cows in the herd.
A major contributor to an individuals' ability to be robust or resilient over their life-course is the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD), whereby exposure of the gametes or developing embryo/foetus to adverse conditions at specific developmentally sensitive time points in utero, can alter an individuals' susceptibility to disease.
Our hypothesis for this research is that perturbations to dairy cows during developmentally sensitive stages of early pregnancy influence lifetime resilience of their offspring. We will quantify and predict resilience using a large dataset containing detailed lifetime records for offspring (n>30,000) that can be mapped back to a wide range of maternal-mediated stressors experienced by the offspring at specific stages of pregnancy. We will measure the effect of known on-farm stressors during specific stages of pregnancy and evaluate how these underpin lifetime resilience. Project aims are; i) to produce an optimised, validated predictive model of lifetime resilience for dairy cows from events that occur while in utero and ii) to identify and quantify the major factors and events during pregnancy that impact most on lifetime resilience and thereby evaluate the extent to which resilience can be enhanced through optimised herd management.
With this knowledge, a farmer will be able to use breeding and management strategies to maximise resilience of cows in the herd.
Organisations
- University of Nottingham (Lead Research Organisation, Project Partner)
- Dept for Env Food & Rural Affairs DEFRA (Co-funder)
- SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT (Co-funder)
- Dept of Agri, Env & Rural Affairs DAERA (Co-funder)
- UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS (Collaboration)
- Animal Health & Welfare Northern Ireland (Project Partner)
- E Reader & Sons (Project Partner)
- Quality Milk Management Services Ltd (Project Partner)
- Private Address (Project Partner)
- SRUC (Project Partner)
- University of Leeds (Project Partner)
Publications
Lewis K
(2024)
Quantification of the effect of in utero events on lifetime resilience in dairy cows.
in Journal of dairy science
Lewis, Kate
(2024)
Quantification of the effect of in-utero events on lifetime resilience in dairy cows
in Journal Dairy Science
| Description | Currently, the dairy industry is facing many challenges that could affect its sustainability, including climate change and public perception of the industry. As a result, interest is increasing in the concept of identifying resilient animals, those with a long productive lifespan, good reproductive performance and milk yield. There is substantial evidence that events in-utero alter the lifetime health of offspring (for example the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) theory) and we hypothesized that disturbances whilst in-utero could alter resilience in calves, where resilience is defined using lifetime data. The aim of this study was to quantify lifetime resilience scores (LRS) using an existing scoring system based on longevity with secondary corrections for age at first calving and calving interval and to quantify the effects of in-utero events on the LRS using two datasets. The first was a large dataset of cattle in 83 farms in Great Britain born from 2006-2015 and the second was a smaller, more granular dataset of cattle born between 2003-2015 in the Langhill research herd at Scotland's Rural College. Events during dam's pregnancy included health events (lameness, mastitis, use of an antibiotic or anti-inflammatory medication), the impact of heat stress as measured by temperature-humidity index and perturbations in milk yield and quality (somatic cell count, percentage fat, percentage protein and fat:protein ratio). Daughters born to dams that experienced higher temperature-humidity indexes while they were in-utero during the first and third trimesters of pregnancy had lower LRS. Daughter LRS scores were also lower where milk yields or median fat percentages in the first trimester were low, and when milk yields were high in the third trimester. Dam LRS was positively associated with LRS of their offspring, however, as parity of the dam increased, LRS of their calves decreased. Similarly, in the Langhill herd, dams of a higher parity produced calves with lower LRS. Additionally, dams which recorded a high max locomotion score in the third trimester of pregnancy were negatively associated with lower calf LRS in the Langhill herd. Our results suggest that events that occur during pregnancy have lifelong consequences for the calf's lifetime performance. However, experience of higher temperature-humidity indexes, higher dam LRS scores and mothers in higher parities explained a relatively small proportion of variation in offspring LRS, which suggests that other factors play a substantial role in determining calf LRS scores. While 'big data' can contain a considerable amount of noise, similar findings between the two datasets suggest the findings are more likely to be real. |
| Exploitation Route | This provides background and building blocks to understand the impact of events during pregnancy on fetal lifetime resilience, including the impact of climate. |
| Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink |
| Description | Leeds - Nottingham |
| Organisation | University of Leeds |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | University of Nottingham contributed research ideas, data analytic techniques, data. |
| Collaborator Contribution | University of Leeds contributed biological expertise related to association between in utero insults and long-term foetal health. |
| Impact | Project commenced 6 months ago so no outcomes as yet. |
| Start Year | 2022 |