Inflammatory and energetic profile of dairy calves up to 90 days of life and the effect of multisensory stimulation at the weaning period

• Grant number: 16/24923-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: March 31, 2017
• End date: August 30, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Ecology of Domestic Animals and Ethology
• Principal Investigator: Mateus José Rodrigues Paranhos da Costa
• Grantee: Paula Pimentel Valente
• Supervisor: Gene Wijffels
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Jaboticabal. Jaboticabal , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Australia
• Associated to the scholarship: 15/00606-1 - Effect of multisensorial stimulation in reducing weaning stress of dairy calves, BP.PD

Abstract

The aim of the study is to evaluate the inflammatory and energetic profile of dairy calves from 1st to 90th day of life and to study the effect of multisensory stimulation (visual, tactile and auditory) on the immune response at the weaning period. The adipocytokine leptin and cytokines IL-1², IL-6, IL-10, INF-³ and TNF-± will be quantified in twenty-four calves across the first three months of their lives. All calves received tactile stimulation from the 1st to the 35th day of life, and at 50th days of age they were divided into two groups (with 12 calves each); calves from group 1 (control) had minimum contact with humans and calves from group 2 (treatment) received multisensory stimulation (visual contact, positive tactile and auditory stimulation), applied daily for 5 minutes for each calf from the 50th to the 80th day of life. The calves were weaned at 70 days of age. They were kept in the same facilities for more 10 days to adapt to the new feed, and then driven to small paddocks in groups of 12. Blood samples were taken with heparin on the 1st, 3rd, 35th, 50th, 60th, 70th, 75th, 80th, 90th day of life in the two groups. The plasma samples stored at -80°C will be subjected to ELISA test to quantify leptin and cytokines. For statistical analysis of the data will be used PROC MIXED for the dependent variables with normal distribution and PROC GLIMMIX for the variables without normal distribution, both of the SAS program. (AU)