Regulation of systemic and reproductive tract inflammation in dairy cows

这项研究计划将使加拿大13，000个奶牛场的近100万头泌乳奶牛受益，全球乳制品行业的奶牛数量更多，其中约三分之一每年因某种形式的生殖道疾病而降低生育能力。虽然这些条件通常不被认为会直接降低动物福利，但对生产者来说，它们在经济上是昂贵的，而且无法怀孕最终会导致奶牛从牛群中被淘汰。 炎症是产犊后子宫愈合的必要组成部分，但 如果炎症过度或持续， 乐于助人.新陈代谢引起的全身性炎症 生殖道外（即脂肪动员和肝脏） 功能）可能至少与局部相互作用一样重要， 细菌和生殖道炎症反应。然而，在这方面， 代谢性炎症的作用仍有待量化， 这是本研究计划的一个目标。要做到这一点，需要更好地了解饲料摄入量，能量供应和炎症之间的关系。 该研究计划的目标是： 1.描述奶牛在妊娠最后几周中常见的采食量减少与全身炎症指标增加之间的关系 2.确立战略性抗炎治疗减少代谢和生殖道炎症的能力和效用 3.探讨泌乳早期改善能量供应改善炎症状态的能力 在这项研究计划的五年中，我们将进行三项深入的研究，这些研究相互建立，以实现目标。 我们将使用经过验证的能量代谢，炎症，免疫功能和生殖道健康的微创标志物，试图解开摄食量减少和全身炎症增加的问题，并测试抗炎治疗是否可以缓解这些不良症状。 接下来，我们将建立系统性抗炎治疗可以帮助减少生殖道炎症的概念证明。 最后，我们将研究减少炎症和增加能量供应对全身和局部生殖炎症和健康的单独和联合作用。 该计划将培养2名研究生和6名本科生，掌握各种科学技术，使他们能够在加拿大经济日益增长和日益复杂的畜牧业领域从事科学职业。

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.