
	Asian Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances
	Year: 2007 \| Volume: 2 \| Issue: 4 \| Page No.: 184-195 DOI: 10.3923/ajava.2007.184.195

Rumen-protected Methionine Improves Early-Lactation Performance of Dairy Cattle Under High Ambient Temperatures

G. R. Ghorbani, D. Kianzad, M. Alikhani and A. Nikkhah

Abstract: High Ambient Temperatures (AT) would be an additional pressure on early-lactation cows already undergoing physiological and metabolic adaptations of early-lactation. Methionine is the initiator amino acid in any polypeptide biosynthesis. The high AT can stimulate the synthesis of specific proteins by the immune system to maintain cell integrity. The high AT was hypothesized to increase maintenance methionine requirements in dairy cattle already facing large methionine demands of early-lactation. The primary objective was to determine the effects of a Rumen-Protected Met (RPM) product (SmartamineM^TM) on productivity and estrous expression visibility in early-lactation dairy cattle under high AT. Ten second-calf and fifteen third- and fourth-calf Holstein cows were grouped based on parity, previous milk production records and body condition score. Cows within each group were randomly assigned to either a control (n = 13) or a RPM treatment (n = 12) at 2 week prepartum and monitored through 14 week in milk. The cows were housed in loose stalls receiving 12 g daily RPM from 2 week prepartum to 2 week postpartum and 17 g RPM from 3 week through 14 week postpartum. The control cows received the same diets but without RPM. Body condition was scored at -14, 25, 60 and 110 day of calving. The visibility of estrous expression was scored on the basis of standing and mounting activities with the scorers blind to the treatments. The average maximum daily AT was 42°C in August. Across the experimental weeks, RPM increased (p<0.01) milk contents of protein, lactose and SNF in all cows. The RPM increased (p = 0.04) milk protein yield and tended (p = 0.09) to increase milk yields of energy and fat in second-calf cows but not in older cows. In addition, feeding RPM improved (p = 0.05) visibility of estrous expression across parities. Analysing the polynomial coefficients of individual lactation curves suggested that RPM-fed cows had a more persistent milk yield than control cows (p = 0.05). Results demonstrated that RPM can benefit early-lactation dairy cattle under high ambient temperatures.

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How to cite this article:

G. R. Ghorbani, D. Kianzad, M. Alikhani and A. Nikkhah, 2007. Rumen-protected Methionine Improves Early-Lactation Performance of Dairy Cattle Under High Ambient Temperatures. Asian Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 2: 184-195.

DOI: 10.3923/ajava.2007.184.195

URL: https://scialert.net/abstract/?doi=ajava.2007.184.195

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