Peripartal rumen-protected methionine supplementation to higher energy diets elicits positive effects on blood neutrophil gene networks, performance and liver lipid content in dairy cows

Table 2 Effects of different treatments on production responses, somatic cell counts (SCC), whole blood phagocytosis, and blood and liver tissue biomarkers in Holstein cows fed a lower-energy diet (CON), higher-energy diet (OVE) or OVE plus Smartamine M (OVE + SM) during the close-up period and through the first 30 d postpartum

Item^d	Treatment^a			SEM^b	P-value
Item^d	CON	OVE	OVE + SM	SEM^b	Diet	Time	D × T^c
Milk yield, kg/d	40.97^e	34.04^f	41.43^e	2.59	0.07	<0.01	0.74
ECM, kg/d	44.82^e,f	40.02^f	46.90^e	2.26	0.06	0.02	0.17
DMI, kg/d
Prepartum	11.52	12.57	12.64	0.57	0.22	<0.01	0.76
Postpartum	16.19^e	11.28^f	16.94^e	1.22	<0.01	<0.01	0.01
Feed efficiency	2.53^f	3.01^e	2.47^f	0.15	0.03	<0.01	0.01
Milk fat, %	4.60	4.58	4.75	0.18	0.76	<0.01	0.09
Milk protein, %	3.10	3.05	3.20	0.09	0.44	<0.01	0.02
Log-transformed SCC	4.95^e	4.92^e	4.63^f	0.10	0.06	<0.01	0.90
Whole blood phagocytosis, %	77.35^e	41.81^g	51.28^f	3.38	<0.01	0.58	0.75
Blood biomarkers
Insulin, μg/L^h	−1.66^f	−1.30^f	−0.83^e	0.19	0.01	<0.01	<0.01
NEFA, mEq/L^h	−0.77	−0.96	−1.02	0.10	0.16	<0.01	<0.01
BHBA, mmol/L^h	−0.39	−0.37	−0.52	0.08	0.30	<0.01	0.11
Glucose, mg/dL	57.8^e	54.6^e,f	53.5^f	1.55	0.07	<0.01	0.54
VLDL, μg/μL	0.37^f	0.43^e,f	0.49^e	0.04	0.01	<0.01	0.25
Liver composition, % wet wt
Total lipid^h	6.9	9.2	7.7	1.13	0.14	<0.01	0.37
TAG	2.47^f	4.70^e	3.40^e,f	0.65	0.03	<0.01	0.15

^aCON = lower-energy control energy (n = 9; 1.24 Mcal/kg DM); OVE = higher-energy (n = 9; 1.54 Mcal/kg DM); OVE + SM = higher-energy plus Smartamine M (n = 10; SM = 0.07 % of DM)
^bLargest SEM is shown
^cInteraction between diet and time
^dECM = energy corrected milk; VLDL = very-low density lipoproteins; TAG = triacylglycerol
^e-gMean values within a row with different superscripts were significantly different (P < 0.05)
^hLog₂-scale

ISSN: 2049-1891