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Project

Precision livestock farming meets metabolomics: an integrative approach to understand and quantify resilience in dairy cows, and to identify resilience biomarkers based on blood plasma and milk metabolites.

Resilience in animals and humans can be considered as their capacity to bounce back to normal status after a challenge. High resilience means better health and welfare and more efficient and sustainable performance, which is of high concern globally. In this study, the dairy cow around calving is applied as an animal model to quantify and improve the understanding of resilience. The combination of high-frequency phenotypic data obtained from precision livestock farming (PLF) systems and metabolomics allows us to approach resilience with a systems biology approach that relies on phenotypic performance, physiological alteration, and energy balance. Through this project, a better understanding of the biological mechanisms of resilience in dairy cows will be obtained and provide new criteria to evaluate the cows’ health and the farm’s sustainability through the development of an integrated resilience index. Moreover, novel biomarkers for resilience will be identified from blood plasma and milk metabolites. As another major breakthrough, the results of this resilience study can provide a reference to understand and quantify resilience in other animals and humans. Through this fellowship, the interdisciplinarity of the approach will maximize uptake, accuracy and impact of the proposed research and ensure a broadening of skill sets and experiences of the researcher and host institution.

Date:1 Oct 2021 →  16 Dec 2022
Keywords:Animal Production, Precision Livestock Farming, Animal Physiology
Disciplines:Agricultural animal production not elsewhere classified, Animal health engineering, Veterinary physiology, pathophysiology and biochemistry