Chronic metabolic responses of postpartal dairy cows to subcutaneous glucagon injections, oral glycerol, or both

Abstract

We examined the long-term effects of daily subcutaneous injections of 15mg of glucagon during the first 14 d postpartum with or without coadministration of 400mL of pure glycerol orally on blood metabolites and hormones and liver composition of Holstein dairy cows during early lactation. Fourteen multiparous cows with body condition score of ≥3.5 points (1–5 point scale) were assigned randomly to one of 4 treatment groups—saline, glucagon, glycerol, or glucagon plus glycerol. Fatty liver syndrome was induced by feeding cows a dry-cow ration supplemented with 6kg of cracked corn daily during the last 6 wk of the dry period. Compared with saline treatment (n=3), coadministration of glucagon and glycerol (n=4) increased plasma glucose and insulin and decreased plasma nonesterified fatty acid concentrations in both treatment weeks, whereas glucagon alone (n=3) produced similar changes plus a decrease in plasma β-hydroxybutyrate in the second week only. No significant changes were observed for the glycerol alone treatment (n=4). We conclude that a single daily dose of glycerol for the first 14 d postpartum may potentiate the action of glucagon in the first treatment days to alleviate some symptoms of fatty liver syndrome, such as the increase in plasma nonesterified fatty acids and the decrease in plasma glucose and insulin, in Holstein dairy cows after parturition.