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In this study, we investigated associations among subclinical intra-mammary infection (IMI) and quarter-level milk composition, udder health indicators, and cheesemaking traits. The dataset included records from 450 Holstein cows belonging to three dairy herds. After an initial screening (T0) to identify animals infected by Streptococcus agalactiae, Streptococcus uberis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Prototheca spp., 613 quarter milk samples for 2 different sampling times (T1 and T2, 1 mo after T1) were used for analysis. Milk traits were analyzed using a hierarchical linear mixed model including the effects of days in milk, parity and herd, and bacteriological and inflammatory category [culture negative with somatic cell count (SCC) <200,000 cells/mL; culture negative with SCC ≥200,000 cells/mL; or culture positive]. All udder health indicators were associated with increased SCC and IMI at both sampling times. The largest effects were detected at T2 for milk lactose (−7% and −5%) and milk conductivity (+9% and +8%). In contrast, the increase in differential SCC (DSCC) in samples with elevated SCC was larger at T1 (+17%). Culture-negative samples with SCC ≥200,000 cells/mL had the highest SCC and greatest numbers of polymorphonuclear-neutrophils-lymphocytes and macrophages at both T1 and T2. Regarding milk cheesemaking ability, samples with elevated SCC showed the worst pattern of curd firmness at T1 and T2. At T2, increased SCC and IMI induced large decreases in recoveries of nutrients into the curd, in particular recovered protein (−14% and −16%) and recovered fat (−12% and −14%). Different behaviors were observed between Strep. agalactiae and Prototheca spp., especially at T2. In particular, samples that were positive for Strep. agalactiae had higher proportions of DSCC (+19%) compared with negative samples with low SCC, whereas samples that were positive for Prototheca spp. had lower DSCC (−11%). Intramammary infection with Prototheca spp. increased milk pH comp

Ultrasound (US) imaging has been proposed as a noninvasive tool for monitoring liver dysfunction in dairy cows. This study, carried out on 306 clinically healthy Holstein cows in the first 120 d of lactation kept in 2 herds in northern Italy, aimed at investigating the association between US imaging-derived traits, namely predicted liver triacylglycerol content (pTAG, mg/g), liver depth (LD, mm), portal vein depth (PVD, mm) and area (PVA, mm2), and body size measurements, body condition score (BCS), and milk productivity indicators. Transcutaneous US examination, milk sampling, body size measurements (withers height and heart girth), and BCS were collected once from all cows in 10 sampling batches. The body weights (BW) of a subsample of 73 cows were recorded and used together with an existing data set of BW and measures of Holstein Friesian cows (n = 399) to develop a regression equation to predict BW, which was then used to compute productivity indicators by scaling the milk production traits to predicted BW. Body size measures, BCS, milk traits, and productivity indicators were classified (low, medium, and high) in 0.75 units of standard deviation of the residuals generated from a linear model that included the effects of parity, days in milk, and sampling batch. Liver pTAG, PVA, PVD, and LD were analyzed with a sequence of linear mixed models that included the fixed effects of days in milk and parity and the random effect of sampling batch as common terms, whereas the classes of body and milk traits and the productivity indicators were included one by one. The US-related traits were found to be associated with body size measurements and BCS. Specifically, pTAG was inversely related to BCS, whereas PVD and LD increased with increasing heart girth, BCS, and predicted BW. Generally, no relevant associations were observed between the US parameters and milk production traits, including when expressed in terms of productivity. In conclusion, this study suggests that U

The dry-off of dairy cows represents an important phase of the lactation cycle, influencing the outcome of the next lactation. Among the physiological changes, the severity of the inflammatory response can vary after the dry-off, and this response might have consequences on cow adaptation in the transition period. The plasma protein profile is a diagnostic tool widely used in humans and animals to assess the inflammatory status and predict the outcome of severe diseases. The albumin-to-globulin ratio (AG) can represent a simple and useful proxy for the inflammatory condition. In this study, we investigated the relationship between AG before dry-off and inflammation, metabolic profile, and performance of 75 Holstein dairy cows. Blood samples were collected from −62 (7 d before dry-off) to 28 d relative to calving (DFC) to measure metabolic profile biomarkers, inflammatory variables, and liver function. Daily milk yield in the first month of lactation was recorded. Milk composition, body condition score, fertility, and health status were also assessed. The AG calculated 1 wk before dry-off (−62 DFC) was used to retrospectively group cows into tertiles (1.06 ± 0.09 for HI, 0.88 ± 0.04 for IN, and 0.72 ± 0.08 for LO). Data were subjected to ANOVA using the PROC MIXED program in SAS software. Differences among groups observed at −62 DFC were almost maintained throughout the period of interest, but AG peaked before calving. According to the level of acute-phase proteins (haptoglobin, ceruloplasmin, albumin, cholesterol, retinol-binding protein), bilirubin, and paraoxonase, a generally overall lower inflammatory condition was found in HI and IN than in the LO group immediately after the dry-off but also after calving. The HI cows had greater milk yield than LO cows, but no differences were observed in milk composition. The somatic cell count reflected the AG ratio trend, with higher values in LO than IN and HI either before dry-off or after calving. Fertility was better in

The dry-off of dairy cows represents an important phase of the lactation cycle, influencing the outcome of the next lactation. Among the physiological changes, the severity of the inflammatory response can vary after the dry-off, and this response might have consequences on cow adaptation in the transition period. The plasma protein profile is a diagnostic tool widely used in humans and animals to assess the inflammatory status and predict the outcome of severe diseases. The albumin-to-globulin ratio (AG) can represent a simple and useful proxy for the inflammatory condition. In this study, we investigated the relationship between AG before dry-off and inflammation, metabolic profile, and performance of 75 Holstein dairy cows. Blood samples were collected from −62 (7 d before dry-off) to 28 d relative to calving (DFC) to measure metabolic profile biomarkers, inflammatory variables, and liver function. Daily milk yield in the first month of lactation was recorded. Milk composition, body condition score, fertility, and health status were also assessed. The AG calculated 1 wk before dry-off (−62 DFC) was used to retrospectively group cows into tertiles (1.06 ± 0.09 for HI, 0.88 ± 0.04 for IN, and 0.72 ± 0.08 for LO). Data were subjected to ANOVA using the PROC MIXED program in SAS software. Differences among groups observed at −62 DFC were almost maintained throughout the period of interest, but AG peaked before calving. According to the level of acute-phase proteins (haptoglobin, ceruloplasmin, albumin, cholesterol, retinol-binding protein), bilirubin, and paraoxonase, a generally overall lower inflammatory condition was found in HI and IN than in the LO group immediately after the dry-off but also after calving. The HI cows had greater milk yield than LO cows, but no differences were observed in milk composition. The somatic cell count reflected the AG ratio trend, with higher values in LO than IN and HI either before dry-off or after calving. Fertility was better in

Little is known about the effects of commonly found levels of Fusarium mycotoxins on the performance, metabolism, and immunity of dairy cattle. We investigated the effects of regular contamination levels, meaning contamination levels that can be commonly detected in dairy feeds, of deoxynivalenol (DON) and fumonisins (FB) in total mixed ration (TMR) on the performance, diet digestibility, milk quality, and plasma liver enzymes in dairy cows. This trial examined 12 lactating Holstein dairy cows using a 3-period × 3-treatment Latin square design. The experimental period was 21 d of mycotoxin exposure followed by 14 d of washout. During treatment periods, cows received one of 3 diets: (1) CTR (control) diet of TMR contaminated with 340.5 µg of DON/kg of dry matter (DM) and 127.9 µg FB/kg of DM; (2) MTX diet of TMR contaminated with Fusarium mycotoxins at levels higher than CTR but below US and European Union guidelines (i.e., 733.0 µg of DON/kg of DM and 994.4 µg of FB/kg of DM); or (3) MDP diet, which was MTX diet supplemented with a mycotoxin deactivator product (i.e., 897.3 µg of DON/kg of DM and 1,247.1 µg of FB/kg of DM; Mycofix, 35 g/animal per day). During washout, all animals were fed the same CTR diet. Body weight, body condition score, DM intake, dietary nutrient digestibility, milk production, milk composition and rennet coagulation properties, somatic cell count, blood serum chemistry, hematology, serum immunoglobulin concentrations, and expression of multiple genes in circulating leucocytes were measured. Milk production was significantly greater in the CTR group (37.73 kg/d) than in the MTX (36.39 kg/d) and the MDP (36.55 kg/d) groups. Curd firmness and curd firming time were negatively affected by the MTX diet compared with the other 2 diets. Furthermore, DM and neutral detergent fiber digestibility were lower after the MTX diet than after the CTR diet (67.3 vs. 71.0% and 42.8 vs. 52.3%). The MDP diet had the highest digestibility coefficients for DM (72

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the diagnostic accuracy of bone scintigraphy in a large multicenter cohort of patients with cardiac amyloidotic involvement and Phe64Leu transthyretin (TTR) mutation. Background: Diagnostic accuracy of bone scintigraphy for transthyretin-related cardiac amyloidosis (TTR-CA) is considered extremely high, enabling this technique to be the noninvasive diagnostic standard for TTR-CA. Nevertheless, this approach has not been systematically validated across the entire spectrum of TTR mutations. Methods: A total of 55 patients with Phe64Leu TTR mutation were retrospectively analyzed and evaluated between 1993 and 2018 at 7 specialized Italian tertiary centers. Cardiac involvement was defined as presence of an end-diastolic interventricular septum thickness ≥12 mm, without other possible causes of left ventricular hypertrophy (i.e., arterial hypertension or valvulopathies). A technetium-99m (99mTc)–diphosphonate (DPD) or 99mTc–hydroxyl-methylene-diphosphonate (HMDP) bone scintigraphy was reviewed, and visual scoring was evaluated according to Perugini's method. Results: Among 26 patients with definite cardiac involvement, 19 underwent 99mTc-DPD or 99mTc-HMDP bone scintigraphy. Of them, 17 (89.5%) patients had low or absent myocardial bone tracer uptake, whereas only 2 (10.5%) showed high-grade myocardial uptake. The sensitivity and the accuracy of bone scintigraphy in detecting TTR-CA were 10.5% and 37%, respectively. Patients with cardiac involvement and low or absent bone tracer uptake were similar to those with high-grade myocardial uptake in terms of age, sex, and electrocardiographic and echocardiographic findings. Conclusions: The sensitivity of bone scintigraphy (DPD and HMDP) in detecting TTR-CA is extremely low in patients with Phe64Leu TTR mutation, suggesting the need to assess diagnostic accuracy of bone scintigraphy to identify cardiac involvement across a wider spectrum of TTR mutations.

The aim of this study was to investigate changes in the abundance of genes involved in leukocyte function between cows highly specialized for milk production (Holstein, n = 12) and cows selected for meat and milk (Simmental, n = 13). Blood was collected on d 3 after calving in PAXgene tubes (Preanalytix, Hombrechtikon, Switzerland) to measure mRNA abundance of 33 genes. Normalized gene abundance data were subjected to MIXED model ANOVA using SAS (SAS Institute Inc. Cary, NC). Simmental cows had greater transcript abundance of proinflammatory cytokines and receptor genes (IL1B, TNF, IL1R, TNFRSF1A), cell migration- and adhesion-related genes (CX3CR1, ITGB2, CD44, LGALS8), and the antimicrobial IDO1 gene. In contrast, compared with Holstein cows, Simmental cows had lower abundance of the toll-like receptor (TLR) recognition-related gene TLR2, the antimicrobial-related gene LTF, and S100A8, which is involved in cell maturation, regulation of inflammatory processes, and immune response. These results revealed that breed plays an important role in the modulation of genes involved in immune adaptation and inflammatory response, and the immune system of Simmental cows could potentially have a more acute response in early lactation. In turn, this might be beneficial for mounting a more efficient response after calving and allow for a smoother homeorhetic adaptation to lactation.