Dataset b-carotene and VitE status in dairy cows
Description
In a case study performed in high producing Flemish dairy herds we aimed to: 1) unravel the associations of lactation stage, season and farm type with blood bC and VitE concentrations, 2) investigate the blood bC and VitE concentrations in dairy cows and 3) provide an ‘on farm’ analyzing strategy to estimate the overall antioxidant status of the herd. Seven grazing and 7 zero-grazing dairy farms were visited during autumn, winter and summer. During each visit, blood was randomly sampled from 5 dry cows (2–4w pre-partum), 5 cows in early lactation (0–3w post-partum) and 5 cows in mid lactation (moment of artificial insemination ±12w post-partum), and analyzed on bC, VitE, glutathione peroxidase, non-esterified fatty acids and β-hydroxybutyrate concentrations. The database is composed of 3 tabs: 1) Farms: the number of animals per farm, the average annual milk yield per cow of each farm (kg) and the type of farm (grazing or zero-grazing) is presented 2) Full database: the following data are presented of each sampled cow: specific cow ID, farm number (1-14), lactation stage (1=DRY, 2=EARLY LACT, 3=MID LACT), number of days post-partum, parity, body condition score (BCS), farm type (1=Grazing, 2=Zero-Grazing), the housing at the moment of sampling (1=Grazing at the field, 2=housed in stables), the season (1=Autumn, 2=Winter, 3=Summer), whether they received vitamin supplements (0/1) or bC supplements in particular (0/1) and the calving interval. B-carotene was measured by means of the iCheck, a chromatographic method or a spectrophotometric method in plasma. Both b-carotene and Vitamin E were analysed in blood withdrawn from the tail vein or udder vein. In addition, glutathione peroxidase in red blood cells and non-esterified fatty acids and b-hydroxy butyric acid were measured in serum. 3) LinearMixedModel data: this is a part of the full database and was used for Linear Mixed Model Analysis. For an overview of the results, discussion and conclusion see ‘De Bie et al. An update on β-carotene and Vitamin E in the dairy industry: blood levels, influencing factors and the development of a protocol to estimate the antioxidant status of the herd – a case study in Flanders’