Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-vpsfw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-18T07:23:36.007Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Physiological attributes as possible selection criteria for milk production 3. Plasma hormone concentrations and metabolite and hormonal responses to changes in energy equilibrium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

R. B. Land
Affiliation:
ARC Animal Breeding Research Organisation, Dryden Field Laboratory, Roslin, Midlothian EH25 9PS
W. R. Carr
Affiliation:
ARC Animal Breeding Research Organisation, Dryden Field Laboratory, Roslin, Midlothian EH25 9PS
I. C. Hart
Affiliation:
ARC Animal Breeding Research Organisation, Dryden Field Laboratory, Roslin, Midlothian EH25 9PS National Institute for Research in Dairying, Shinfield, Reading RG2 9AT
T. J. Osmond
Affiliation:
ARC Animal Breeding Research Organisation, Dryden Field Laboratory, Roslin, Midlothian EH25 9PS
R. Thompson
Affiliation:
ARC Animal Breeding Research Organisation, Dryden Field Laboratory, Roslin, Midlothian EH25 9PS ARC Unit of Statistics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JZ
N. Tilikaratne
Affiliation:
ARC Animal Breeding Research Organisation, Dryden Field Laboratory, Roslin, Midlothian EH25 9PS
Get access

Abstract

Plasma hormone concentrations and metabolite responses to changes in energy equilibrium were measured in experiments designed to compare a) Hereford × Friesian with Friesian calves and b) Friesian calves sired by bulls with a high level of Improved Contemporary Comparison with those sired by bulls of a low level. The concentration of thyroxine and triiodothyronine tended to be greater in calves of higher dairy merit. The concentration of growth hormone was largely unrelated to dairy merit in the circumstances studied. The concentration of insulin was greater in Hereford × Friesian than in Friesian calves following feeding and following the injection of propionate. Responses to the injection of insulin and of growth hormone (as measured by changes in the plasma concentration of urea nitrogen, free fatty acids, glucose or the other hormone) were little affected by the level of Improved Contemporary Comparison of a calfs sire.

It was concluded that the thyroid system and the response of insulin to perturbation of energy balance may provide criteria of genetic merit for milk production which are neither age- nor sex-limited.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Cowie, A. T., Forsyth, I. A., and Hart, I. C., 1980 Hormonal Control of Lactation. Springer Verlag, Berlm.Google Scholar
Gutteridge, J. M. C. and Wright, E. B. 1968. A simple automated guaiacum 'glucose-oxidase method. J- med. Lab. Technol. 25: 385386.Google Scholar
Hart, I. C., Bines, J. A., Balch, C. C. and Cowie, A. T. 1975a. Hormone and metabolite differences between lactating beef and dairy cattle. Life Sci. 16: 12851292.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hart, I. C., Bines, J. A., Morant, S. V. and Ridley, J. L. 1978. Endocrine control of energy metabolism in the cow: comparison of the levels of hormones (prolactin, growth hormone, insulin and thyroxine) and metabolites in the plasma of high- and low-yielding cattle at various stages of lactation. J. Endocr. 77: 333345.Google Scholar
Hart, I. C., Flux, D. S., Andrews, P. and Mcneilly, A. S. 1975b. Radioimmunoassay for ovine and caprine growth hormone: its application to the measurement of basal circulating levels of growth hormone in the goat. Hormone Metab. Res. 7: 3540.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joakimsen, Ø., Steenberg, K., Lien, H. and Theodorsen, L. 1971. Genetic relationship between thyroxine degradation rate and fat-corrected milk yield in dairy cattle. Ada. Agric. scand. 21: 121124.Google Scholar
Marsh, W. H., Finoerhut, B. and Miller, H. 1965. Automated and manual direct methods for the determination of blood urea. Clin. Chem. 11: 624627.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Osmond, T. J., Carr, W. R., Hinks, C. J. M., Land, R. B. and Hill, W. G. 1981. Physiological attributes as possible selection criteria for milk production. 2. Plasma insulin, tri-iodothyronine and thyroxine in bulls. Anim. Prod. 32: 159163.Google Scholar
Patterson, D. S. P. 1963. Some observations on the estimation of non-esterified fatty acid concentrations in cow and sheep plasma. Res. vet. Sci. 4: 230237.Google Scholar
Quaas, R. L., Everett, R. W. and Mcclintock, C., 1979. Maternal grandsire model for dairy sire evaluation. J. Dairy Sci. 62: 16481654.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seth, J., Rutherford, F. J. and Mckenzie, I. 1975. Solid-phase radioimmunoassay of thyroxine in untreated serum. Clin. Chem. 21: 14061413.Google Scholar
Seth, J., Toft, A. D. and Irvine, W. J. 1976. Simple solid phase radioimmunoassays for total triiodothyronine and thyroxine in serum and their clinical evaluation. Clinica chim. Ada. 68: 291301.Google Scholar
Tilikaratne, N., Alliston, J. C., Carr, W. R., Land, R. B. and Osmond, T. J. 1980. Physiological attributes as possible selection criteria for milk production. 1. Study of metabolites in Friesian calves of high and low genetic merit. Anim. Prod. 30: 327340.Google Scholar
Tilikaratne, N., Hill, W. G. and Land, R. B. 1981. Direct and correlated responses of mice to selection for the concentration of thyroxine in peripheral plasma. Genet. Res. 38: 157169.Google Scholar