Nutrition innovation: Combining production and dairy persistence with animal welfare
Study the udder dynamically
The appearance of a lactation curve is well known: a phase of rise after calving, a more or less high and durable peak, then a phase of regular decrease leading to drying up.
What is less well known is that, during this cycle, the udder structure constantly evolves and makes it possible to explain these different phases.
Several phenomena occur during a cycle:
- mammary epithelial cells, milk secretors, multiply. The secretion capacity of these cells is also stimulated and this leads to an increase in milk production.
- from the middle of lactation, breast reshaping occurs. Breast tissue reorganizes, disrupting the secretory epithelium and penalizing lactation.
The udder structure evolves during the lactation cycle
|
|
Mammary cells |
Remodeling |
Impact on milk yield |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early lactation | Cell proliferation > cell death => increase of the number of secretory cells | No | High increase |
| Lactation | Cell proliferation = cell death => Stabilisation of the number of secretory cells | Moderate | Stabilisation |
| End of lactation | Cell proliferation < cell death => Fall of the number of secretory cells | High | Fall of milk yield, drying up |
But that's not all! Another phenomenon - the exfoliation of mammary epithelial cells - is also at work, this time during milking. "During milking, but also between milking, there is a process of exfoliation of mammary epithelial cells," explains Lucile Hervé, a doctor of animal physiology and biology, who adds that "this loss of epithelial integrity is accompanied by a migration of leucocytes into milk, a source of inflammation of mammary tissue and a decline in milk production". At each milking, "the mammary epithelium loses its integrity, then finds it again at the end of milking," says Lucile Hervé, who believes that the mammary gland is able to adapt to a large number of disturbances.
If we can play on this dynamics of mammary tissue, we will be able to influence production, with an approach that is totally different from anything that has been practiced until now.
In connection with these phenomena, the CCPA Group has developed Axion® Start, a natural nutritional solution for dairy cows and goats, based on the patented extract of a plant: Scutellaria Baicalensis.
Axion®Start, the solution that reconciles welfare and milk production
Discover the video that presents the benefits of the Axion®Start:
Axion® Start enhances a patented extract of Scutellaria baicalensis and also contains grape and green tea extracts, as well as rumino-protected vitamin C. This nutritional solution plays a role in the proliferation, secretory capacity of mammary epithelial cells and the integrity of mammary tissues. Axion® Start is now available in dairy cow feeds, in mineral feeds and in the Delta® Axion®Start nutritional specialty.
Axion®Start, a well-proven solution
Many tests have been conducted since its launch in 2014. A trial conducted in 2018 with the Kansas University (USA) with experimental batches of dairy cows (Control versus Axion®Start distributed for 60 days) resulted in better milk performance over the first 150 days in the two Axion Start batches and improved lactation persistency in cows receiving Axion®Start. Under experimental conditions, the tests carried out on seven French dairy farms had also resulted in a 6% improvement in milk production, or +2.4 l of milk per day, for the batch supplemented with Axion®Start. Further field observations in 2015 on 22 farms in northern and eastern France, representing a total of more than a thousand cows, had resulted in an average response of 1.5 to 2 litres of extra milk per day for the batch of cows supplemented with Axion®Start.
