What harm does fatty liver and ketosis cause to cows?

The fatty liver and ketosis can reduce milk yield, lose body weight, lose appetite, increase disease incidence, reduce fertility, and sometimes lead to death. I.e. it will bring huge profit loss to dairy farms.

Causes of Fatty Liver

For dairy cows, the perinatal period (about 42 days, 3 weeks before and 3 weeks after delivery) is a very critical period. Because perinatal period often results in a decrease in the intake of food (DMI). The consequence of DMI decline is insufficient energy supply, which leads to negative energy balance of the body. At this time, body fat has been mobilized to supply energy demands. This leads to the storage of non esterified fatty acids (NEFA) in the liver. The VLDL secreted by dairy cows is very little, which can not transport the fat out of the liver sufficiently. This leads to fatty liver.

Second, stress can cause fatty liver. When a cow is stressed at calving time, her hormones trigger a rise in blood fat concentrations. Poor environmental and handling conditions can upset the cow and contribute to her stress. Stress leads to more free radicals in the body, which attack the liver and lead to fatty liver

Cause of ketosis

The liver of dairy cattle can produce ketone but can not use ketone. Because of the decline of liver function, dairy cattle with fatty liver can not transport ketone body out of the liver, which leads to ketosis. That's why 100% of cows with fatty liver have ketosis.

What is the best way to solve fatty liver and ketosis?

To answer this question, first look for the answer from the cow itself. There is a kind of ingredient called bile acids, which secreted not sufficient by cow’s liver.

If the bile acids is secreted sufficiently, there will be no fatty liver and ketosis in cows. The reasons are as follows:

1. Bile acids can promote the synthesis of VLDL, increase the content of VLDL, transport fat out of liver in time, and avoid fatty liver;

2. Bile acids can inhibit the activity of SREBP-1c and the synthesis of lipid in liver;

3. Bile acids can improve the activity of lipoprotein lipase (LPL), promote the expression of PPAR α, and promote the lipolysis.

4. Bile acids can improve the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH PX) and glutathione reductase (GR) and eliminate excessive oxygen free radicals in vivo.

5. Bile acids can promote the absorption of energy such as fat in feed for dairy cows, and make up for the negative energy balance.

 

If there is no fatty liver problem, ketosis will disappear.

The conclusion is that bile acids supplementation is the natural key to solve fatty liver and ketosis of cows.