Access to Shade in Heat Stressed Beef Cows Alters the Plasma Metabolome of Both Cows and Their Offspring

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

6-2025

Publication Title

Journal of Animal Science

Abstract

This study evaluated the impacts of pre- and postpartum access to artificial shade on the plasma metabolome of heat-stressed cow-calf pairs. On day 0, 64 pregnant Brangus beef heifers (21 months of age) were stratified by body weight (454 ± 37 kg) and body condition score (6.3 ± 0.28) and allocated to 1 of 16 bahiagrass pastures (1 ha and 4 heifers/pasture). Treatments were randomly assigned to pastures (8 pastures/treatment) and consisted of heifers provided (SH) or not provided (NSH) access to artificial shade from day 0 to 133 (83 ± 4 days prepartum until 50 ± 4 days postpartum). Shade structures were removed on day 133. Calves were weaned on day 203 (120 days of age) and transferred to 1 of 16 drylot pens, where they were limit-fed the same concentrate at 3.25% of BW until day 268. On days 222 and 236, calves were vaccinated against pathogens associated with bovine respiratory disease. Blood samples were collected from all heifers approximately 30 days before calving (day 55) and from all calves immediately before and 1 day after vaccination (days 222 and 223) to determine the plasma metabolome using liquid chromatography. A clear separation was observed on day 55 (R² = 0.98) for the plasma metabolome of SH and NSH heifers. Plasma concentrations of 15 metabolites increased (P ≤ 0.05), and 7 metabolites tended (P ≤ 0.10) to increase in SH vs. NSH heifers, including metabolites from amino acid, ceramide, and glycosylceramide classes. Plasma concentrations of 1 metabolite decreased (P = 0.03), and 2 metabolites tended (P ≤ 0.10) to decrease from triacylglycerol and indole classes. Eleven pathways related to glutamate and alanine metabolism were impacted (P ≤ 0.03) in SH vs. NSH heifers on day 55. A clear separation was also observed for the offspring metabolome on days 222 (R² = 0.98) and 223 (R² = 0.96). Plasma concentrations of 2 metabolites from ceramide and diacylglycerol classes decreased (P ≤ 0.04) on day 222, while 5 metabolites from the glycosylceramide class tended (P ≤ 0.10) to decrease in SH vs. NSH calves on day 223. Plasma concentrations of 12 and 5 metabolites associated with amino acid and lipid metabolism increased (P ≤ 0.05), while 8 and 7 metabolites tended (P = 0.10) to increase on days 222 and 223, respectively, in SH vs. NSH offspring. Removing maternal access to shade modified (P ≤ 0.01) 10 offspring metabolic pathways related to amino acid metabolism before vaccination but did not impact (P > 0.10) the offspring metabolic pathways following vaccination. Thus, removing maternal access to artificial shade during the pre- and postpartum periods altered the plasma metabolome and primarily affected protein and lipid metabolism in both heifers and their calves.

Volume

103

Issue

Suppl 2

First Page

87

Last Page

87

Comments

American Society of Animal Science Southern Section / Wester Section 2025 Joint Meeting, April 5-8, 2025, Arlington, TX

DOI

10.1093/jas/skaf170.100

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