ADSA 2021 Student Writings Part 2

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Check out today’s article done by Arup Ratan Sen for the Annual American Dairy Science Association meeting held virtually last month. Arup is a graduate student in Animal Science under the mentorship of Dr. Elizabeth Eckelkamp. He received his DVM and M.S. in Dairy Science from Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University in his hometown of Chittagong, Bangladesh. Chittagong is a city located on the southeastern coast of Bangladesh.

New look into lactation biology
By Arup Ratan Sen
This year’s Lactation Biology symposium at American Dairy Science Association Annual Meeting focused on modulating and understanding physiological processes involved in milk production. Researchers from French National Institute of Agriculture proposed a new noninvasive approach to assess negative energy balance in dairy cattle during early lactation. Essentially all dairy suffer from a period of negative energy balance during early lactation, which could potentially impact animal health and milk production. This study assessed the changes in different biomarkers in milk due to feed restriction and suggested that an increase in milk Glucose-6-phosphate concentration could indicate negative energy balance in the dairy cow. Retention of functional mammary epithelial cells is important to increase lactation persistency. Researchers from Virginia Tech suggested that increased extrusion of viable mammary epithelial cells from the udder could be related to the reduced milk production. Their study results showed a higher number of viable mammary epithelial cells in the multiparous cows compared to primiparous cows. Another study by researchers from the University of Sherbrooke, Canada suggested that incomplete milking could negatively affect the mammary gland’s responsiveness to prolactin, reducing milk production. Their study showed a reduction in milk production by 40% due to incomplete milking when compared to the milk production by complete milking. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and US Dairy Forage Research Center highlighted the impact of different management during lactation on mammary gland growth and development. Their studies indicated that mammary gland growth and development in dairy calves could be negatively affected by in-utero heat stress, which could impact milk synthesis in later life. Their studies also suggested that mammary gland gene expression was associated with the differences in diet. Arup Ratan Sen is from Bangladesh. He is currently an MS student at the University of Tennessee under the mentorship of Dr. Elizabeth Eckelkamp, focusing on producers’ perception farm management that impacts their permanency in the dairy industry.