Fetal programming in lactating cows

Fetal programming is an important aspect in high yield dairy cows. In cows, fetal development in early stages is influenced by exogenous factors such as:

• Food consumption
• The mother’s energy at birth
• Hormone and antibody levels
• The productive management of the mother (Banos et al., 2007)

In recent decades, milk production has increased, partly due to improvements in cow feeding and, in part, due to genetic selection of cows with greater milk yields. These in turn, breed offspring that manage to exceed maternal production (Berry et al., 2008).

• However, it is not well known if all the offspring from the same cow receive the same genetic inheritance.

Berry et al. (2008) suggest that prenatal conditions experienced by the bovine fetus could affect the animal’s productive performance and health as an adult.

• Therefore, the resulting phenotype, in addition to being related to the genotype of the animal, can also be influenced by the modifications suffered in the genome. Resulting in a specific “epigenotype” (Rijnkels et al. , 2010).

Figure 1. Milk production curve

It has been described that the morphogenesis of the mammary gland begins during fetal development and continues during puberty, pregnancy and successive lactations with their involutions (Rijnkels et al., 2010). These morphogenic changes can be affected by the conditions faced by the fetus inside the womb (Berry et al., 2008).

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