The effect of dietary supplementation with Aurantiochytrium limacinum on lactating dairy cows in terms of animal health, productivity and milk composition
C. A. Moran, M.
Morlacchini, J. D. Keegan, G. Fusconi
Summary
The aim of this study was
to investigate the effect of dietary supplementation with the docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)- rich microalgae, Aurantiochytrium limacinum
(AURA), on a variety of health and productivity parameters in lactating cows.
Twenty- four cows were blocked by parity and number of days in milk and then
randomly assigned to a control
(CON; n= 12)
group with no
algal supplementation, or
a treatment group
(AURA; n= 12) provided with 100 g AURA cow−1day−1or 16 g DHA cow−1day−1.
A variety of health
and productivity measurements
were taken, and
results indicated that supplementation had no negative effects
on animal health in terms of somatic cell count, haematological and
biochemical blood parameters,
while body condition
was marginally improved by algal
supplementation. No differences were found for the vari-ous production
parameters measured; however,
a tendency towards
increased milk production
was observed for the AURA
group during the
final stage of
the study (+4.5 kg cow
−1 day−1, day 78–84).The fatty acid profile Of milk was
improved by sup-plementation, with significantly lower saturated fatty acids,
significantly higher omega-3 fatty acids and an improved omega 3/omega- 6 ratio
observed when compared to the
control group. The
amount of DHA
in the milk
of cows provided
105 g AURA head−1day−1was 4.7 mg/100 g milk with a
peak transfer efficiency from feed to
milk at day 49 of 8.3%. These results indicate that
supplementation with 105 gAURA head−1day−1resulted in the successful enrichment
of milk with DHA without negatively impacting the health or productivity of the
animals.
KEYWORDS : dairy
enrichment, haematology, microalgae, milk DHA, milk production, polyunsaturated
fatty acids1
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