Increased milk somatic cell counts (SCC) are used as an indicator for bovine mastitis. During mastitis, polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) become the predominant cell type. Shortly after parturition, the severity of mastitis is increased and several PMN functions are downregulated. Apoptotic and necrotic processes of PMN could influence SCC and PMN functions. In this study, the percentages of a...

Photoperiod manipulation during the lactation cycle alters milk yield, with long days (LDPP) increasing yield in lactation and short days (SDPP) in the dry period improving subsequent yield. Circulating prolactin (PRL) is directly related to day length, with LDPP increasing and SDPP decreasing PRL, respectively. Two blocks of 24 multiparous Holstein cows were used during two consecutive years t...

In the past decade, a global demand for products from organic agriculture has increased rapidly. Milk quality is of major interest to all parties. Therefore, the objective of this study was to compare cow performance and product quality on conventional and organic diets. 72 Holstein dairy cows were allotted to one of four diets: a conventional diet (CON40), an organic diet with a low amount of ...

Milk and blood serum from clinically mastitis infected, subclinically mastitis infected and healthy Friesian cows (15 samples from each of 3 groups) were evaluated for macrominerals (sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium and phosphorus). The milk from cows infected with subclinical mastitis revealed a significant decrease in potassium (P < 0.001) and a significant increase in sodium and phospho...

The objective of this study was to estimate the relation of body condition score (BCS) near calving to the body condition change in early lactation, the reproductive performance, milk yield and culling rate in the first lactation Estonian Holstein dairy cows. Cows were divided into three groups based on their BCS at calving; thin, BCS ≤3.0 (n=29); moderate, BCS 3.25–3.5 (n= 48); and fat, BCS ≥3...

Our knowledge about the time trend of cow’s milk allergy prevalence is very limited, however there some indirect data favoring the increase of the cow’s milk allergy prevalence. There are several studies reporting that food allergy is increased among children of all ages, both gender and different races/ethnicities. Several national health surveys in USA recently indicated that food allergy pre...

in the past decade, a global demand for products from organic agriculture has increased rapidly. milk quality is of major interest for all parties. therefore, the objective of this study was to compare cow performance and product quality in conventional and organic system. twenty holstein dairy cows were allotted to one of 2 diet groups, which including: a conventional diet (con), and an organi...

Milk yield and pre-weaning calf performance of spring-calving Charolais (C) and Beef × Holstein-Friesian (BF) cows was compared over 3 experiments. Cows were individually offered a restricted allowance of grass silage pre partum in Experiments 1 and 2 and ad libitum silage in Experiment 3. In all three experiments cows received silage to appetite for the first 34 (s.d. 16.2) days of lactation. ...

fifty six holstein lactating cows (71 days in milk; 35 kg/day milk production) were employed in a complete block randomized design of repeated measurements. cows were randomly allocated to two treatments based on their parity. cows in group 1 were fed a balanced total mixed ration (600 g concentrate /kg dm and 400 g forages /kg dm) with 50 g rumen protected methionine (rpm) per head per day (me...

Twenty crossbred lactating multiparous cows were used in a 28-day study to compare dry matter intake (DMI), milk yield, milk composition and Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) protein concentrations in plasma when fed diets containing Bollgard II(®) cottonseed (BGII) or a control non-genetically modified isogenic cottonseed (CON). Bollgard II cottonseed contains the Cry1Ac and Cry2Ab insecticidal prot...