Regulation of systemic and reproductive tract inflammation in dairy cows

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This research program will benefit the nearly 1 million lactating dairy cows on 13,000 dairy farms in Canada, and many more in the global dairy industry, approximately one-third of which have their fertility reduced by some form of reproductive tract disease each year. While these conditions are generally not considered to reduce animal welfare directly, they are economically costly to producers, and failure to become pregnant will ultimately cause a cow to be removed from the herd.***Inflammation is a necessary part of uterine healing after calving, but*if inflammation is excessive or persistent it may be harmful rather than*helpful. It appears that systemic inflammation due to metabolism*outside the reproductive tract (i.e. fat mobilization and liver*function) may be at least as important as the local interactions of*bacteria and inflammatory response in the reproductive tract. However,*the contribution of metabolic inflammation remains to be quantified and*this is a target of the present research program. To do so will require a better understanding of the relationships between feed intake, energy supply, and inflammation.***The objectives of this research program are: ***1. To describe the relationship between the common decrease in feed intake and increased indicators of systemic inflammation in the last weeks of pregnancy in dairy cows***2. To establish the ability and utility of strategic anti-inflammatory therapy to reduce metabolic and reproductive tract inflammation ***3. To investigate the ability of improved energy supply in early lactation to improve inflammatory status***Over the five years of this research program, we will conduct three intensive studies which build on each other to achieve the objectives.  We will use validated, minimally-invasive markers of energy metabolism, inflammation, immune function, and reproductive tract tract health to try to disentangle decreases in feed intake and increases in whole-body inflammation and to test whether anti-inflammatory therapy can relieve undesirable symptoms of these.  Next we will establish proof of concept that systemic anti-inflammatory treatment can helpfully reduce inflammation in the reproductive tract.  Finally we will investigate the separate and joint effects of reducing inflammation and providing increased energy supply on whole-body and local reproductive inflammation and health.  This program will train 2 graduate and 6 undergraduate students in a wide variety of scientific techniques that will position them well for science-based careers in the growing and increasingly sophisticated animal agriculture sector of the Canadian economy.**