Effect of Milk-Feeding Frequency and Calcium Gluconate Supplementation on Growth, Health, and Reproductive and Metabolic Features of Holstein Heifers at a Rearing Farm
We compared the effects of milk-feeding in 288 Holstein calves (72 per group) which were fed twice (2F) or thrice (3F) daily, with or without the addition of hydrogenated fat-embedded calcium gluconate (G) supplemented in the starter food and in the daily diet up to the age of 9 months, on the calve...
| Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
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MDPI
2024
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11939/8972 https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/14/9/1336 |
| _version_ | 1855492597793947648 |
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| author | Revilla-Ruiz, Ángel Carulla, Patricia Fernández-Novo, Aitor Mercado, Eduardo de Pérez-Navarro, Alejandro Patrón-Collantes, Raquel Sebastián, Francisco Pérez-Garnelo, Sonia S. González-Martínez, Juan V. Estellés, Fernando Villagrá, Arantxa Astiz, Susana |
| author_browse | Astiz, Susana Carulla, Patricia Estellés, Fernando Fernández-Novo, Aitor González-Martínez, Juan V. Mercado, Eduardo de Patrón-Collantes, Raquel Pérez-Garnelo, Sonia S. Pérez-Navarro, Alejandro Revilla-Ruiz, Ángel Sebastián, Francisco Villagrá, Arantxa |
| author_facet | Revilla-Ruiz, Ángel Carulla, Patricia Fernández-Novo, Aitor Mercado, Eduardo de Pérez-Navarro, Alejandro Patrón-Collantes, Raquel Sebastián, Francisco Pérez-Garnelo, Sonia S. González-Martínez, Juan V. Estellés, Fernando Villagrá, Arantxa Astiz, Susana |
| author_sort | Revilla-Ruiz, Ángel |
| collection | ReDivia |
| description | We compared the effects of milk-feeding in 288 Holstein calves (72 per group) which were fed twice (2F) or thrice (3F) daily, with or without the addition of hydrogenated fat-embedded calcium gluconate (G) supplemented in the starter food and in the daily diet up to the age of 9 months, on the calves’ metabolism, growth, health, and reproductive efficiency up to first pregnancy. The calves received 6 L of milk replacer (130 g/L) and had ad libitum access to water and textured calf starter with or without gluconate. Gluconate supplementation promoted a “catch-up” in growth in supplemented calves compared to their counterparts that did not receive gluconate. Gluconate appeared to reduce animal metabolic stress during key events, such as weaning and transfer into open-door pens, reducing fructosamine (352.61 vs. 303.06 in 3FG and 3F, respectively; p = 0.028) and urea (3F revealed the highest values compared with the other three groups: 19.06 for 3F vs. 13.9 (2F), 13.7 (2FG), and 14.3 (3FG), respectively, p = 0.002) from weaning onwards. The feeding of dairy calves with milk replacer three rather than two times per day tended to be associated with better health from weaning to 4 months old; parameters such as ultrasound lung score and calf health score improved over time (p < 0.001). Thrice-daily feeding with milk replacer tended to reduce the number of artificial inseminations per pregnancy in heifers by 0.2 points (p = 0.092). We confirmed significant correlations between early health and growth parameters and reproductive efficiency and a positive correlation between body weight and average daily weight gain and the thickness of the back fat layer in young heifers (r = 0.245; p < 0.0001; r = 0.214; p < 0.0001 respectively). Our study was conducted on a commercial farm with reasonably effective animal management, so baseline welfare was likely satisfactory. |
| format | Artículo |
| id | ReDivia8972 |
| institution | Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias (IVIA) |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| publishDateRange | 2024 |
| publishDateSort | 2024 |
| publisher | MDPI |
| publisherStr | MDPI |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ReDivia89722025-04-25T14:49:44Z Effect of Milk-Feeding Frequency and Calcium Gluconate Supplementation on Growth, Health, and Reproductive and Metabolic Features of Holstein Heifers at a Rearing Farm Revilla-Ruiz, Ángel Carulla, Patricia Fernández-Novo, Aitor Mercado, Eduardo de Pérez-Navarro, Alejandro Patrón-Collantes, Raquel Sebastián, Francisco Pérez-Garnelo, Sonia S. González-Martínez, Juan V. Estellés, Fernando Villagrá, Arantxa Astiz, Susana Heifers First pregnancy Dairy Animal stress Metabolites L02 Animal feeding Animal welfare We compared the effects of milk-feeding in 288 Holstein calves (72 per group) which were fed twice (2F) or thrice (3F) daily, with or without the addition of hydrogenated fat-embedded calcium gluconate (G) supplemented in the starter food and in the daily diet up to the age of 9 months, on the calves’ metabolism, growth, health, and reproductive efficiency up to first pregnancy. The calves received 6 L of milk replacer (130 g/L) and had ad libitum access to water and textured calf starter with or without gluconate. Gluconate supplementation promoted a “catch-up” in growth in supplemented calves compared to their counterparts that did not receive gluconate. Gluconate appeared to reduce animal metabolic stress during key events, such as weaning and transfer into open-door pens, reducing fructosamine (352.61 vs. 303.06 in 3FG and 3F, respectively; p = 0.028) and urea (3F revealed the highest values compared with the other three groups: 19.06 for 3F vs. 13.9 (2F), 13.7 (2FG), and 14.3 (3FG), respectively, p = 0.002) from weaning onwards. The feeding of dairy calves with milk replacer three rather than two times per day tended to be associated with better health from weaning to 4 months old; parameters such as ultrasound lung score and calf health score improved over time (p < 0.001). Thrice-daily feeding with milk replacer tended to reduce the number of artificial inseminations per pregnancy in heifers by 0.2 points (p = 0.092). We confirmed significant correlations between early health and growth parameters and reproductive efficiency and a positive correlation between body weight and average daily weight gain and the thickness of the back fat layer in young heifers (r = 0.245; p < 0.0001; r = 0.214; p < 0.0001 respectively). Our study was conducted on a commercial farm with reasonably effective animal management, so baseline welfare was likely satisfactory. 2024-09-03T11:08:57Z 2024-09-03T11:08:57Z 2024 article publishedVersion Revilla-Ruiz, A., Carulla, P., Fernandez-Novo, A., De Mercado, E., Pérez-Navarro, A., Patrón-Collantes, R., ... & Astiz, S. (2024). Effect of Milk-Feeding Frequency and Calcium Gluconate Supplementation on Growth, Health, and Reproductive and Metabolic Features of Holstein Heifers at a Rearing Farm. Animals, 14(9), 1336. 2076-2615 https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11939/8972 10.3390/ani14091336 https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/14/9/1336 en This work was funded by the “Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial” of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (grant CDTI-IDI-20200936). Patricia Carulla received a grant from Universitat Politècnica de Valencia through the program PAID-01-20. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection or analysis, manuscript preparation, or in the decision to publish the results. Atribución-NoComercial 4.0 Internacional http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ openAccess MDPI electronico |
| spellingShingle | Heifers First pregnancy Dairy Animal stress Metabolites L02 Animal feeding Animal welfare Revilla-Ruiz, Ángel Carulla, Patricia Fernández-Novo, Aitor Mercado, Eduardo de Pérez-Navarro, Alejandro Patrón-Collantes, Raquel Sebastián, Francisco Pérez-Garnelo, Sonia S. González-Martínez, Juan V. Estellés, Fernando Villagrá, Arantxa Astiz, Susana Effect of Milk-Feeding Frequency and Calcium Gluconate Supplementation on Growth, Health, and Reproductive and Metabolic Features of Holstein Heifers at a Rearing Farm |
| title | Effect of Milk-Feeding Frequency and Calcium Gluconate Supplementation on Growth, Health, and Reproductive and Metabolic Features of Holstein Heifers at a Rearing Farm |
| title_full | Effect of Milk-Feeding Frequency and Calcium Gluconate Supplementation on Growth, Health, and Reproductive and Metabolic Features of Holstein Heifers at a Rearing Farm |
| title_fullStr | Effect of Milk-Feeding Frequency and Calcium Gluconate Supplementation on Growth, Health, and Reproductive and Metabolic Features of Holstein Heifers at a Rearing Farm |
| title_full_unstemmed | Effect of Milk-Feeding Frequency and Calcium Gluconate Supplementation on Growth, Health, and Reproductive and Metabolic Features of Holstein Heifers at a Rearing Farm |
| title_short | Effect of Milk-Feeding Frequency and Calcium Gluconate Supplementation on Growth, Health, and Reproductive and Metabolic Features of Holstein Heifers at a Rearing Farm |
| title_sort | effect of milk feeding frequency and calcium gluconate supplementation on growth health and reproductive and metabolic features of holstein heifers at a rearing farm |
| topic | Heifers First pregnancy Dairy Animal stress Metabolites L02 Animal feeding Animal welfare |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11939/8972 https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/14/9/1336 |
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