Biomarker responses to weaning stress in beef calves

O'Loughlin, Aran; McGee, M.; Doyle, Seán; Earley, Bernadette

doi:10.1016/j.rvsc.2014.06.003

Cited by 39 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…As noted, the YS steers sampled on day 0 also had significantly higher cortisol concentrations and higher neutrophil percentage, which resulted in a greater N:L ratio compared with the NS steers. Together, these findings are in agreement with those reported previously indicating a positive relationship between these blood constituents and an acute phase stress response (Cooke and Bohnert, 2011;Campistol et al, 2013;O'Loughlin et al, 2014). Ceruloplasmin concentrations were not different among treatment groups at any time after weaning (Table 3).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 92%

Effects of pre-weaning feed supplementation and total versus fenceline weaning on the physiology and performance of beef steers

Campistol¹,

Kattesh²,

Waller³

et al. 2016

Int. J. Livest. Prod.

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Forty-eight Angus steers (208 ±15 days of age) housed on pasture with their dams, were divided equally based on initial body weight (BW; 312 ± 28 kg), and assigned randomly to assess whether receiving a palatable, high fiber supplement (YS; 4.5 kg/cow-calf/day) versus no supplement (NS) for 7 days prior to weaning alters the steers' acute stress response following separation from its dam. Steers were weaned (day 0) by fenceline (FS; 12 NS and 12 YS) or total separation (TS; 12 NS and 12 YS). On day 7 the FS group was moved to a pasture lot distant from their dams and adjoining the TS group. All steers were weighed and bled on days-7, 0, 3, 7, 14, and 35 (BW only) and provided access to the supplement on days 0 to 14. By day 0, BW gain increased (P<0.01) and serum interferon-γ (IFN-γ) concentration decreased (P<0.01) in all steers. However, the YS steers exhibited greater (P<0.05) neutrophil to lymphocyte (N:L) ratio and total plasma cortisol (CORT; P=0.09) and ceruloplasmin (CER; P=0.08) concentrations compared with NS steers. From weaning to day 7, NS-TS steers initially experienced a BW loss (P<0.01) followed by a BW gain (P<0.01) when compared with the remaining steers. At 3 day post-weaning, mean hematocrit for YS steers was lower (P < 0.01) than that of NS steers and CORT was greater (P<0.05) for NS-TS vs. YS-TS steers. Red blood cell number, N:L ratio, haptoglobin and IFN-γ concentrations increased (P<0.01) in all steers by day 3 and returned to pre-weaning concentrations thereafter. From days 14 to 35, NS-FS steers gained less (P<0.01) weight compared with YS-FS and all TS steers. These results suggest that providing a high fiber supplement beginning from 7 days prior to weaning may reduce BW loss and temper the steers' acute stress response when weaned using total separation.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 92%

Effects of pre-weaning feed supplementation and total versus fenceline weaning on the physiology and performance of beef steers

Campistol¹,

Kattesh²,

Waller³

et al. 2016

Int. J. Livest. Prod.

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“…Haptoglobin concentration did not increase, but did decrease, after the initiation of gradual weaning in this study. However, recently, variations in haptoglobin concentrations following weaning have been considered to be inconsistent and unreliable indicators of a stress response (O'Loughlin et al, 2014). Similar to that observed by Obeidat et al (2013), we observed a differential acute phase protein response between the two breeds employed and plane of nutrition had no effect on the acute phase response.…”

Section: Figuresupporting

confidence: 83%

Characterisation of haematological profiles and whole blood relative gene expression levels in Holstein-Friesian and Jersey bull calves undergoing gradual weaning

Johnston

Kenny

Kelly

et al. 2016

animal

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Haematological profiles indicate the health status of an animal and can be used to identify sub-clinical stress responses. The objectives of the study were to examine (i) the effect of breed and plane of nutrition, on haematological profiles of artificially reared Holstein-Friesian and Jersey bull calves in response to gradual weaning, and (ii) the effect of breed on immune response genes in bovine whole blood using real-time quantitative PCR. Holstein-Friesian and Jersey bull calves were group housed indoors and individually fed using an automatic feeder. They were allocated to a high, medium or low plane of nutrition, based on milk replacer (MR) and concentrate. The nutrition treatments were calculated using National Research Council guidelines in order to achieve a high, medium or low growth rate for each respective breed. During the weaning phase MR was gradually reduced over a 14-day (d) period (d −13 to d 0). Calves were blood sampled on d −14, −6, −3, 0, 1, 3, 8 and 14 relative to weaning (d 0) for subsequent haematological analysis. On d −14, 1 and 8, a subset of eight Holstein-Friesian calves randomly selected from the medium nutrition treatment and eight Jersey calves randomly selected from the high nutrition treatment, were blood sampled for gene expression profiling, targeting biomarkers of weaning stress. These two treatment groups were chosen to examine the effect of breed on expression of the genes of interest, as energy intake and animal performance were similar. There was no effect of breed × plane of nutrition interaction nor effect of plane of nutrition on any variable measured ( P > 0.05). Gradual weaning produced differential biological responses in the two breeds evidenced by breed × time interactions for lymphocyte, monocyte and red blood cell number, plasma haemoglobin and haptoglobin concentrations ( P < 0.05). The typical stress response consisting of neutrophilia and lymphopaenia was not observed for any treatment. An immune response to gradual weaning was observed as the relative gene expression level of the pro-apoptotic gene, Fas, increased on d 1 relative to d −14 ( P < 0.05). Relative gene expression levels were greater in Jersey calves compared with Holstein-Friesian for the pro-inflammatory cytokine CXCL8 ( P = 0.05) and the glucocorticoid receptor, GRα ( P < 0.05). The increased levels of these transcripts suggest that Jersey calves may have a more sensitive immune system compared with Holstein-Friesian.

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“…In the current study, manual restraint for sampling, and jugular venipuncture, may have increased cortisol concentrations. Further, in the current study, calves had never experienced separation from their mothers before the experimental days, where they were separated for a period of 7 to 8 h. Studies investigating the stress of weaning have found that separating calves from their mothers (Lay et al, 1998;Loberg et al, 2008;O'Loughlin et al, 2014), and additionally, altering normal milk intake (Lay et al, 1998), results in an elevated cortisol response (Lay et al, 1998;Loberg et al, 2008;O'Loughlin et al, 2014). The calves used in the current study were unweaned beef calves that before experimentation had minimal exposure to humans.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Effect of a topical anaesthetic formulation on the cortisol response to surgical castration of unweaned beef calves

McCarthy

Lomax

Windsor

et al. 2016

Animal

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Impracticality and cost of existing pain management strategies during surgical castration of beef cattle have limited their widespread implementation on-farm. A farmer-applied topical anaesthetic formulation, originally developed and used commercially to mitigate the pain of mulesing in lambs, was investigated for its potential use for managing pain in surgically castrated calves. This formulation contained lidocaine, bupivacaine, adrenalin and cetrimide. In this study, 24 Angus bull calves were randomly allocated to (1) surgical castration (C, n=8), (2) surgical castration with the post-operative application of topical anaesthetic (CTA, n=8) and (3) sham castration/control (CON, n=8). The experiment was conducted over 2 days, with treatment groups evenly represented across each day. Calves were habituated to handling before the experiment and blood samples were collected for plasma cortisol measurement at defined time periods before, at and post treatment, (at -0.5, 0 h, then +0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 4 and 6 h). There was a significant effect of time on cortisol concentrations across all treatment groups (P<0.01), with lowest concentrations at -0.5 and 6 h and peak concentration at 0.5 h being significantly higher than the cortisol response at 0 h. The effect of treatment was not significant (P=0.077), however, there was a trend for CON calves to display lower cortisol concentrations than C and CTA calves and CTA calves to display lower cortisol concentrations than C calves. The mean area under the curve (AUC) of CON calves was significantly lower than those of C and CTA calves (P=0.04), however, there was no significant difference between the AUCs of CTA and C calves. Immediate application of topical anaesthetic after surgical castration did not significantly reduce plasma cortisol concentrations. However, the trend for CTA calves to display lower cortisol concentrations than C calves warrants further investigation into the use of TA for pain relief of surgically castrated beef calves.

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Biomarker responses to weaning stress in beef calves

Cited by 39 publications

References 29 publications

Effects of pre-weaning feed supplementation and total versus fenceline weaning on the physiology and performance of beef steers

Effects of pre-weaning feed supplementation and total versus fenceline weaning on the physiology and performance of beef steers

Characterisation of haematological profiles and whole blood relative gene expression levels in Holstein-Friesian and Jersey bull calves undergoing gradual weaning

Effect of a topical anaesthetic formulation on the cortisol response to surgical castration of unweaned beef calves

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