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Investigation of cross talking between rumen microbiome, liver and immune system in regulating energy metabolism from dry off to early lactation in dairy cows

Investigation of cross talking between rumen microbiome, liver and immune system in regulating energy metabolism from dry off to early lactation in dairy cows

This project will integrate expertise and technologies from Italy (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, UNICATT) and China (Jilin University, JLU) to advancing current knowledge on the most relevant phases of the lactation cycle in dairy cows, improving animal welfare, efficiency, and sustainability in the dairy sector. The project will exploit multi–omics technologies to understand how cow ruminal and mammary gland microbiomes are controlled by the host animal, and how these impacts on health status, efficiency and product quality.


Executive Programme of Scientific and Technological Cooperation

between Italy and China for the years 2024-2025

 

Scientific Coordinator for Italy: Prof. Erminio Trevisi (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore).  Scientific Coordinator for China: Prof. Guowen Liu (Jilin University)

This project will integrate expertise and technologies from Italy (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, UNICATT) and China (Jilin University, JLU) to advancing current knowledge on the most relevant phases of the lactation cycle in dairy cows, improving animal welfare, efficiency, and sustainability in the dairy sector. The project will exploit multi–omics technologies to understand how cow ruminal and mammary gland microbiomes are controlled by the host animal, and how these impacts on health status, efficiency and product quality. In particular, the role of liver and immune system functionality in the regulating energy metabolism and in the development of metabolic disorders will be investigated. Since metabolic disorders occurring after calving (i.e. ketosis) can take origin long time before the event, the nonlactating period (i.e. dry period) before calving will be deeply characterized with the aforementioned techniques. Microbiome, transcriptome, and metabolome of several tissues will be investigated, and resulting information will be integrated with a system biology approach to provide an improved understanding of the crosstalking between rumen, mammary gland, liver and immune system. The project will also evaluate and provide strategies to prevent or mitigate the adverse effects of metabolic disorders and their consequences on immune response, milk quality and cheese-making properties, with positive implications on the whole dairy industry. Transversal work packages include collaboration and dissemination of results to the sector in both countries.

The aim of the project is to improve knowledge on the prolonged transition period (TP), since the onset of some metabolic diseases such as ketosis is not well understood and could possibly start before calving. Therefore, the study of metabolic and immune changes at dry-off (DO) is crucial to predict the changes that will occur at the beginning of lactation. Consequently, the inflammatory response and behavioral alterations evidenced at dry-off represent a stressful event. Using a multi-omics approach, we aim to characterize the changes that occur from DO to the beginning of lactation, focusing on the rumen, liver, immune system and mammary gland. Understanding these mechanisms will improve animal management and welfare, with a high impact on the dairy sector. The in vivo experiment is started in September 2024 in CERZOO and in overall will include 26 healthy multiparous cows from DO to 60 days in milk. Diets of the cows before the DO will receive or not a restricted diets. Cows will be followed untill 60 days in milk to study the effects on rumen, mammary gland, plasma with a multiomics approach combined with the conventional physiological parameters (as feed intake and rumination, milk yield, fatty acids volatile in rumen, immuno-metabolic profile in plasma, milk composition).