Ruminants Press

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• Is it necessary to add nicotinic acid to the dairy cow diet?

  There are different names for nicotinic acid: niacin, vitamin PP (Pellagra preventis), and vitamin B3. Vitamin B3, and its inclusion in the vitamin B group, is not quite accurate. In organisms, niacin is presented as nicotinamide and is necessary for the synthesis of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) and nicotinamide dinucleotide phosphate (NADP (H)).

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• How to improve goats milk quality through nutrition

  Goats milk is frequently used for dairy and the final quality of cheese and milk-derived products depends on milk quality.

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• Fatty liver and metabolic consequences in the lactating dairy cow

  Fatty liver is a metabolic disease with high incidence in dairy cows, sheep, and buffaloes. Before calving and in the first weeks of lactation, the energy requirements of lactating ruminants are greater than the capacity of producing energy from ingested nutrients. This negative energy balance triggers a massive release of fatty acids (and amino acids) from the adipose tissue.

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• Methyl donor supplementation suppresses the progression of liver lipid accumulation while modifying the plasma triacylglycerol lipidome in periparturient Holstein dairy cows

  Co-supplementation of methyl donors may lower hepatic lipid content in transition cows.

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• The importance of an efficient transition

  The transition period, calving and the first month of lactation, are the moments of the entire production cycle of the dairy cow that involve the greatest risks. Although ketosis is a problem considered "typical" of this period, it is certainly not the only one and should be considered only as the tip of the iceberg.

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• Animal production is the only culprit

  Nowadays society pointed at animal production and intensive livestock farming as the cause of several global problems linked to animal protein: climate crisis, environmental sustainability, pollution, greenhouse gas, animal welfare, ethics, antibiotic resistance, viruses spread, diseases.

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• The transition period for small ruminants: balanced nutrition is frequently understate but makes the difference

  The transition period is extremely delicate for all ruminants, including sheep and goats. In these species, the transition starts 2-3 weeks before and lasts 2-3 weeks after calving.

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• Peripartum in dairy goats: nutritional strategies

  The transition period is the most delicate in dairy goats management, but diagnostic aids are not available yet. At the date, precise and functional nutrition is the only effective strategy to optimally face peripartum and transition periods. An accurate analysis of the real needs is mandatory to reach the goal.

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• Peripartum in dairy goats: know it to get it better

  Dairy goat breeding is slowly increasing as well as the interest in goats derived products. These animals have the same rearing problems and they are linked to milk cost and economical sustainability as dairy cows are. Goat milk is more expensive than bovine so that we can improve the return on investment in two ways: performance optimization and product valorization.

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• The importance of the dry period in dairy cows

  To dry-off a cow means stopping milking for a certain period before the next calving. Usually, this interruption is at 220 days of pregnancy to ensure 60 days of production stop. Genetic selection in the last decades and the continuous attempts to obtain a calving-fertilization period as short as possible led to dry-off cows with very high milk yield.

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• Fat-soluble vitamins: precious allies of the immune system and beyond

  The aim of clinical nutrition is to improve animal health and reducing the use of antibiotics to the bare minimum. If the immune system of dairy cows is efficient, there is a reduction in pathologies prevalence and they have a better recovery, especially for metritis and mastitis, without the use of a large amount of antibiotics.

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• Vitamin C: the endogenous synthesis is not enough

  Vitamin C is an essential molecule for humans so that its dietary intake is needed. Many animals are able to synthesize this vitamin starting from precursors such as glucose and galactose, through the glucuronic acid metabolic pathway. In ruminants, vitamin C is strongly degraded (about 60%) by rumen microflora and depends on their endogenous hepatic production.

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