Heat stress represents a major burden to the dairy industry making improving cow comfort and productivity in the hot and humid summer months a significant management objective.
University of Georgia researchers determined that dairy cattle cooled with fans and sprinklers respond better to heat stress, produce more milk and have healthier mammary glands. A recent study explored how evaporative cooling and zinc sources in feed impact mammary glands and heat-shock responses and sought to better understand cellular reactions in real-world circumstances for dairy cattle.
Source: Feedstuffs, March 26, 2021. Link. We observed that both mammary and circulating heat shock proteins would keep increasing until several days into heat stress. This likely means that heat shock protein is being produced and that heat tolerance is consistent throughout time, which could be important for cell survival not only at the mammary level but for different tissue, because heat shock proteins are expressed in different cell types.” – Ruth Marisol Orellana Rivas, PhD.