Fatty acids in milk as possible biomarkers for the energy deficit of high-yielding dairy cows in early lactation - recent findings

Shortly before calving and with incipient lactation the high-producing dairy cows (individually different duration) are in a negative energy balance (NEB). At this stage, dairy cows are able to use body fat and protein reserves for milk production. This property is not pathological but a genetically determined strategy, with which the metabolic performance of lactating cows can be increased. However, this strategy is not without risk for the lactating high-producing dairy cows, as metabolic disorder - especially within the lipid metabolism can easily be caused by NEB. The energy balance (EB) of a cow can be estimated by calculating it from the energy intake and output. Since there is often a lack of reliable knowledge about feed intake in practice, such indicators (as the change in body mass (.KM), the change in body condition (.BCS), the lactic fatty acids (FA) or the fat: protein ratio (FPR)) are in increasing interest. Of particular interest are easily accessible markers for the routine evaluation of the energy status of high-performing dairy cows, which can be recorded with little effort. In the present work such parameters are shown and evaluated.