The Eighth International Workshop on the Biology of Lactation in Farm Animals: Introduction

Abstract

This volume represents the span of invited papers presented at the Eighth International Workshop on the Biology of Lactation in Farm Animals (BOLFA) held in Pirassununga, Brazil, August 21 to 23, 2006. That meeting was the first BOLFA workshop not held as a companion to a European Association for Animal Production (EAAP) or American Society of Animal Science (ASAS) meeting, and the first outside of North America or Europe. Despite these venue departures from the norm, the workshop format of interactive discussion on topics related to milk production in farm animal species was unchanged. This volume begins with a paper from Antonella Baldi’s group (Baldi et al., 2008) that provides a historical perspective of previous BOLFA workshops with an emphasis on nutritional factors that influence mammary function. It sets the stage for the later papers that consider aspects of milking management and mastitis treatment to improve milk yield in farm animal species. The next series of contributions focus on environmental and management influences on mammary function. Dahl (2008) summarizes recent developments in the study of photoperiod exposure during the dry period and develops a hypothesis that prolactin-mediated events influence mammary cell turnover and metabolic gene expression in the liver. These findings lead to a discussion of similarities between photoperiodic and thermal influences on prolactin-related responses, and the potential for a common pathway for environmental effects. Without competent milk ejection, lactation fails. More thorough understanding of what stressors lead to disruptions in the milk ejection reflex, or inhibit it completely, will allow for the development of new meth-