Recipient Organization
PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY
208 MUELLER LABORATORY
UNIVERSITY PARK,PA 16802
Performing Department
Veterinary & Biomedical Sciences
Non Technical Summary
The period around calving is a challenging time for dairy cows as they experience physiological events, such as immune system depression, systemic inflammation,and low circulating calcium concentration, that challenge their health and performance early on during thelactation period. It has been reported that overweight cows and cows that have calving issues (difficult calving, twins, stillborn calves), may experience a higher inflammatory response during the post-partum period. This exacerbatedinflammatory response has been associated with a higher risk of cows developing diseases, underperforming, and ultimately, being removed from the herd. Because of this, these groups of animals should be consideredhigh-priority groups for proactive disease prevention therapies. Considering that 37% of dairy cows experience at least one disease during the early lactation period, 40% of cows may be overweight around calving, and >15% of dairy cattle may experience calving issues in US dairy operations, this is not only an important animal welfare concern that requires immediate attention, but also represents great economic losses for dairy farmers. This impairs farm profitability, ultimately threatening the nation's food sustainability.Acetylsalicylic acid, better known as aspirin, is a common anti-inflammatory drug that have been proposed as a blanket (all cows treated) proactive treatment strategy to reduce inflammation and decrease disease incidenceafter calving in dairy cattle. Blanket calcium supplementation after calving has also been shown to improve cow health during the early lactation period in dairy cows. The study team will develop a disease prevention therapy that will consist of combining oral aspirin and calcium supplementation treatments for selectively treating high-priority cow groups in a single daily administration. The proposed therapy will be applicable/ easy-to-implement (adjust to farm logistics), and cost-effective (less labor involved, less animals treated). If this treatmentis effective, it would greatly improve animal welfare by enhancing health of high-priority cow groups and decreasing unnecessary animal treatments (handling stress). Furthermore, the proposed therapy would optimizefarm profitability by decreasing cow disease losses (e.g., treatment costs, loss in cow performance) and the costs of implementingdisease prevention treatments(selective treatment vs blanket treatment) in dairy operations. Study results will be disseminated through a variety of resources including but not limited to scientific journals, dairy sciences national conference, and Extension educational programs (e.g., workshops, webinars). This approach will broaden the outreach of the project, while increasing its impact on animal welfare and farm profitability in the dairy industry.
Animal Health Component
80%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
80%
Developmental
20%
Goals / Objectives
The major goal of the study isto improve animal welfare and farm profitability in dairy operations through developing an applicable and cost-effective disease prevention therapy. Blanket disease prevention therapies have been proposed to help cows cope with common physiological challenges during the post-partum period, such as high systemic inflammation and low circulating calcium concentration, in order for them to maintain a strong health and perform properly. However, recent research has shown that in some groups of cows, such as over-conditioned cows and cows that experience calving issues (e.g., dystocia, twins, stillbirth), these physiological challenges may be exacerbated, suggesting that these high-priority groups of animals may benefit from disease prevention therapies the most, while other animals may not need it at all. Considering that around 40% of cows may be over-conditioned at dry off, and >15% of dairy cattle may experience calving issues in US dairy operations, developing selective disease prevention reatment strategies for these groups of animals is key to improve health in dairy farms.Acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) is a common non-steroid anti-inflammatory drug (NSAIDs) that have been proposed as a proactive management strategy to reduce inflammation and alleviate discomfort after calving in dairy cattle. Our lab has performed a series of clinical trials to test an applicable treatment strategy with ASA, consisting of two treatments with 4 boluses of ASA (125 g/cow) every 24 h to treat post-partum cows, finding positive results not only on cow performance but also in cow health and fertility. The latter proposed treatment regime is similar to another disease prevention practice widely implemented in dairy farms, which is oral Ca administration. Calcium supplementation after calving has been shown to improve cow metabolism, performance, and health during the postpartum period in dairy cows. Combining oral ASA and Ca treatments for selectively treating high-priority cow groups, instead of as a blanket treatment strategy, in a single daily administration (e.g., development of a product containing both drugs) would be an applicable and cost-effective (less labor involved, less animals treated) practice that could greatly improve animal welfare (enhance health of high-priority cow groups, decrease unnecessary animal handling stress) and profitability in dairy operations.The study specific objective is to: assess the effects of the combination of anti-inflammatory treatment and Ca supplementation after calving on metabolism (i.e., circulating haptoglobin and β-hydroxybutyrate; body condition score), health (i.e., incidence of clinical disease events), production (i.e., milk yield, milk components, milk quality), culling rate and reproductive performance (i.e., DIM to conception, times bred, pregnancy per artificial insemination, abortion rate) in post-partum high-priority cow groups. We hypothesize that this selective disease prevention treatment approach would maximize health and performance of the most susceptible groups of animals in the dairy farm.The study objective would be completed on the stablished timeline and with the resources requested. For further details on these components please see the "Timetable" and "Budget justification/ budget narrative" sections of the main research proposal.
Project Methods
To be able to enroll the required number of cows within the proposed time frame and with the financial resources available, this randomized block experimental study will be performed in a large dairy farm (900 milking cows, Zugstead Dairy Farm) located in Central PA. The study team has a long-lasting collaborative relationship with this farm and the farm has the technology and resources to collect critical health and performance cow data. Sample Size: Assuming a power of 80% and at least a difference of 5% in disease incidence (Barragan et al., 2021) between treatment groups, with adequate statistical significance (alpha=0.05), and considering an estimated experimental unit (cow) attrition rate of 20%, a sample size of 150 cows per group (total of 600 animals) will be required (Sample Size Calculator GPower 3.1).Based on previous literature findings regarding the association of ASA treatment and Ca supplementation benefits with cow parity (i.e., MULT cows benefited from treatment while primiparous cows were negatively affected or not affected), only MULT cows will be included in this study. Furthermore, cows that experience severe calving assistance (i.e., c-section or fetotomy) will not be included in the study. Post-parturient MULT dairy cows (within 12 h after parturition) will be blocked by BCS category (low≤3 pts.; optimal=3.25-3.5; high≥3.75; Roche et al., 2009; Chebel et al., 2018) and by calving issues (NORM = no calving issues; CALIS = at least one calving issue [i.e., dystocia, stillbirth, twins] at calving), and randomly allocated to four treatmentgroups: 1) ASA (n = 150) = 2 oral administrations with aspirin 24 h apart (125 g/cow/d; 4 480-grain aspirin boluses; Agri Labs, St. Joseph, MO); 2) ASA+Ca (n = 150) = 2 oral administrations with aspirin (125 g/cow/d; 4 480-grain aspirin boluses; Agri Labs, St. Joseph, MO) and calcium (43 g/cow/d; 2 calcium boluses; Bovikalc, Boehringer Ingelheim, St. Joseph, MO) 24 h apart, 3) Ca (n = 150) = 2 oral administrations with calcium (43 g/cow/d; 2 calcium boluses; Bovikalc, Boehringer Ingelheim, St. Joseph, MO) 24 h apart, and CONT (n = 150) = 2 oral administrations with gelatin capsules (6 capsules; Torpac Inc., Fairfield, NJ) filled with water 24 h apart.Blood samples will be collected through coccygeal bleeding immediately before each treatment and at 7±3, 14±3, and 21±3 DIM for assessment of circulating HP (only for the first week of lactation, 3 samples) and BHB. Investigators will assess BCS, using a 5-point scale (Ferguson et al., 1994), of enrolled animals at the same blood sample collection times. Furthermore, on-farm computer records (PCDART, Dairy Record Management Systems, Raleigh, NC) will be collected to assess: 1) clinical disease incidences, milk yield, milk components, and SCC during the first 60 DIM, and 2) culling rate and reproductive performance (i.e., DIM to conception, times bred, pregnancy per AI and abortion rate) of study animals up to 150 DIM. Approval from the Institutional Animal Care Use Committee at the Pennsylvania State University will be obtained as required to perform all animal-related procedures described above.All samples will be centrifuged within 2 h of collection and stored in a freezer at -20 C for further analysis. Determination of BHB will be performed using a NovaVet® electronic handheld device (Nova Biomedical Corporation, Waltham, MA) in the study PI's laboratory (Central Milk Testing Laboratory, University Park, 16802). The assessment of circulating concentration of HP will be also performed in PI's laboratory using a commercially available bovine HP ELISA kit (Life Diagnostics, West Chester, PA) following the manufacturer's instructions. The information from the study will be collected through different instruments (e.g., digital, no-digital data) and uploaded into Microsoft Excel spreadsheets (Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA), located in a OneDrive study folder, which only study members will have access to. The statistical analysis of the data set will be performed using SAS statistical software (version 9.4, SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC). The normality and homogeneity of variances for the quantitative dependent variables will be assessed through Shapiro-Wilk statistic, graphical methods (histogram and Q-Q plot), and Barlett's