China Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine ›› 2021, Vol. 48 ›› Issue (11): 3950-3961.doi: 10.16431/j.cnki.1671-7236.2021.11.005

• Animal Nutrition and Feed Science • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effects of Short-term Addition of High-level Flaxseeds on Dairy Performance, Fatty Acid Profiles of Milk and Rumen Fermentation

LI Ning1,2,3, ZHANG Yangdong2,3, HUANG Guoxin2,3, LIU Kaizhen2,3, ZHENG Nan2,3, WANG Jiaqi1,2,3, ZANG Changjiang1   

  1. 1. College of Animal Science, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Urumqi 830000, China;
    2. Laboratory of Quality and Safety Risk Assessment for Dairy Products of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China;
    3. State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China
  • Received:2021-03-29 Online:2021-11-20 Published:2021-11-01

Abstract: The purpose of this experiment was to study the effects of short-term addition of high-level flaxseed on production performance, fatty acid profiles of milk and rumen fermentation. Thirty healthy mid-lactation Holstein dairy cows with similar body weight were selected and divided into 3 groups randomly, and fed basal pasture diet (CK group), 3 000 g/d (13.01% of DM) whole flaxseed diet (WF group), and 3 000 g/d (13.01% of DM) ground flaxseed diet (GF group) respectively. The experiment lasted for 7 weeks, first week was aim to adapt the feeding environmental, 2 to 6 weeks was the feed adaptation period, and the 7th week was the test period. Daily feed intake and milk production were recorded during the test period. Milk samples and rumen fluid samples were collected on the last day of the test, and the fatty acid composition of the milk and rumen fluid was determined by GC-MS. The results showed that:①Compared with CK group, the addition of 3 000 g/d flaxseed had no significant effect on dry matter intake and milk production for dairy cows (P>0.05). The milk fat rate and milk protein rate of GF group had a lower tendency than that of CK group (0.05<P<0.1). ②The 3 000 g/d flaxseed addition increased the production of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) and ω-3 PUFA of milk compared with CK group (P<0.05), and the production of ALA and ω-3 PUFA in GF group were significantly higher than that in WF group (P<0.05). ③The rumen pH of WF group was significantly lower than that of CK and GF groups (P<0.05), and the NH3-N concentration of WF group was significantly higher than that of CK and GF groups (P<0.05). The acetic to propionic acid ratio in GF group was significantly lower than that in CK group (P<0.05). In summary, short-term addition of high level whole flaxseed and ground flaxseed in the diet did not affect the dry matter intake and milk production of dairy cows, but the ALA content in milk was increased, and the improvement effect of GF group was more obvious than that of WF group. However, the addition of high-level ground flaxseed had a tendency to reduce the milk protein rate and milk fat rate, and the high-level whole flaxseed affects the internal environment of the rumen of dairy cows. Therefore, the amount of flaxseed added and its feeding form should be controlled to increase the ALA content in milk while reducing the impact of flaxseed on rumen fermentation.

Key words: flaxseed; dairy cows; α-linolenic acid; ω-3 PUFA; production performance; rumen environment

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