I recently read an article in Progressive Dairy entitled “Transition cow: Immune suppression or a state of immune robustness?” It was written by Lance Baumgard from Iowa State University, and Julie Opgenorth who was at ISU and now works for Purina Animal Nutrition. It is an interesting article and ties together a number of research publications including a 2021 Invited Review in the Journal of Dairy Science regarding the influence of immune activation on transition cow health and performance (JDS Vol. 104, Issue 8, 8380-8410). More recently, Dr. Baumgard’s group published research in JDS evaluating the inflammatory and immune response in early lactation cows (20 days in milk) compared with mid-lactation cows (130 days in milk). The articles are available here:
- Intravenous lipopolysaccharide challenge in early- versus mid-lactation dairy cattle. I: The immune and inflammatory responses ScienceDirect.com
- Intravenous lipopolysaccharide challenge in early- versus mid-lactation dairy cattle. II: The production and metabolic responses ScienceDirect.com
- Intramammary lipopolysaccharide challenge in early- versus mid-lactation dairy cattle: Immune, production, and metabolic responses ScienceDirect.com
Instead of isolating cells and evaluating functions ex vivo, they investigated the whole-body response to intravenous or intramammary administration of a controlled immune stimulant (lipopolysaccharide; LPS). Although all cows regardless of lactation stage mounted an immune response, cows in early lactation engaged a more robust inflammatory response, which disagrees with the traditional theory that transition cows are immune suppressed or lack responsiveness to infections. The articles in Progressive Dairy and JDS are open-access so you might want to dig into this a bit deeper—even a superficial look at the data is worthwhile and certainly suggests that we need to focus on supporting the transition cow during early lactation to make the most of her innate abilities.