Resilience in animals refers to their capacity to cope with short-term environmental disturbances, with a fast return to
normal status and it is an acknowledged beneficial trait of farmed livestock. Resilient cows are considered those with a
high probability of completing multiple lactations, with good reproductive performance, that encounter few health
problems which they overcome easily, and that are efficient and consistent in their milk production. A major contributor to
an individuals’ ability to be robust or resilient over their life-course is the “Developmental Origins of Health and
Disease” (DOHaD), whereby insults to the developing embryo/foetus (e.g. nutritional insults, inflammatory response to
disease/toxins, therapeutics, elevated concentrations of hormones) at specific developmentally sensitive time points, can
alter an individuals’ susceptibility to disease.
Resilience in dairy cattle at both individual and herd level is therefore considered critical to optimise health, welfare, and
productivity and to reduce the environmental footprint of dairy farming as the industry targets net-zero. Rather than
considering health or welfare according to individual diseases, traits or syndromes, enhanced resilience allows the
possibility of a wide-ranging enhancement of health and wellbeing. Therefore, enhancing resilience could provide a step
change to reduce endemic disease in dairy cows. The aim of this 12-month study is to quantify in-utero environmental
factors that contribute to post-partum lifetime resilience in dairy cows, using a very large set of data (>30,000 cow
lifetime records).
Our hypothesis for the research is that perturbations to dairy cows during developmentally sensitive stages of early
pregnancy influence lifetime resilience of their offspring. We will quantify and predict resilience using a large dataset
containing detailed lifetime records for the offspring that can be mapped back to a wide of maternal-mediated stressors
experienced by the offspring at specific stages of pregnancy. We will measure the effect of known on-farm stressors
during specific stages of pregnancy and evaluate how these underpin lifetime resilience. During the 12 month project we
will;
1) Produce an optimised, validated predictive model of lifetime resilience for dairy cows from events that occur while in
utero.
2) Identify and quantify the major factors and events during pregnancy that impact on lifetime resilience and thereby
evaluate the extent to which resilience can be enhanced through optimised herd management.
Outcomes:
i) A method to predict lifetime resilience for dairy cows at birth, co-developed by farmers and vets, to inform selective
breeding programmes on-farm.
ii) Identification of major factors during pregnancy (and their relative importance) that impact the lifetime resilience of the
offspring to inform management strategies to optimise resilience on-farm.
Contact details:
Professor Martin Green
Professor of Cattle Health & Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences
Nottingham Vet School