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Dietary Betaine Impacts the Physiological Responses to Moderate Heat Conditions in a Dose Dependent Manner in Sheep
SIMPLE SUMMARY: Heat stress in sheep initiates physiological methods to dissipate heat that result in decreased production. This study investigated the use of a dietary supplement, the osmolyte betaine fed at two doses (2 or 4 g/day), on the physiological responses to heat in sheep. Heat exposure in...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2016
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5035946/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27589811 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani6090051 |
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author | DiGiacomo, Kristy Simpson, Sarah Leury, Brian J. Dunshea, Frank R. |
author_facet | DiGiacomo, Kristy Simpson, Sarah Leury, Brian J. Dunshea, Frank R. |
author_sort | DiGiacomo, Kristy |
collection | PubMed |
description | SIMPLE SUMMARY: Heat stress in sheep initiates physiological methods to dissipate heat that result in decreased production. This study investigated the use of a dietary supplement, the osmolyte betaine fed at two doses (2 or 4 g/day), on the physiological responses to heat in sheep. Heat exposure initiated physiological responses such as an increased rectal temperature and respiration rate as expected, while betaine supplemented at 2 g/day ameliorated these responses. Thus, dietary betaine supplementation may have beneficial effects for sheep exposed to heat. ABSTRACT: Heat exposure (HE) results in decreased production in ruminant species and betaine is proposed as a dietary mitigation method. Merino ewes (n = 36, 40 kg, n = 6 per group) were maintained at thermoneutral (TN, n = 18, 21 °C) or cyclical HE (n = 18, 18–43 °C) conditions for 21 days, and supplemented with either 0 (control), 2 or 4 g betaine/day. Sheep had ad libitum access to water and were pair fed such that intake of sheep on the TN treatment matched that of HE animals. Heart rate (HR), respiration rate (RR), rectal (T(R)) and skin temperatures (T(S)) were measured 3 times daily (0900 h, 1300 h, 1700 h). Plasma samples were obtained on 8 days for glucose and NEFA analysis. The HE treatment increased T(R) by 0.7 °C (40.1 vs. 39.4 °C for HE and TN respectively p < 0.001), T(S) by +1.8 °C (39.3 vs. 37.5 °C, p < 0.001) and RR by +46 breaths/min (133 vs. 87 breaths/min, p < 0.001) compared to TN. The 2 g betaine/day treatment decreased T(R) (39.8, 39.6 and 39.8 °C, p < 0.001), T(S) (38.7, 38.0 and 38.5 °C, p < 0.001) and RR (114, 102 and 116 breaths/min for control, 2 and 4 g betaine/day, p < 0.001) compared to control. Betaine supplementation decreased plasma NEFA concentrations by ~25 μM (80, 55 and 54 μmol/L for 0, 2 and 4 g/day respectively, p = 0.05). These data indicate that dietary betaine supplementation at 2 g betaine/day provides improvements in physiological responses typical of ewes exposed to heat stress and may be a beneficial supplement for the management of sheep during summer. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5035946 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-50359462016-09-29 Dietary Betaine Impacts the Physiological Responses to Moderate Heat Conditions in a Dose Dependent Manner in Sheep DiGiacomo, Kristy Simpson, Sarah Leury, Brian J. Dunshea, Frank R. Animals (Basel) Article SIMPLE SUMMARY: Heat stress in sheep initiates physiological methods to dissipate heat that result in decreased production. This study investigated the use of a dietary supplement, the osmolyte betaine fed at two doses (2 or 4 g/day), on the physiological responses to heat in sheep. Heat exposure initiated physiological responses such as an increased rectal temperature and respiration rate as expected, while betaine supplemented at 2 g/day ameliorated these responses. Thus, dietary betaine supplementation may have beneficial effects for sheep exposed to heat. ABSTRACT: Heat exposure (HE) results in decreased production in ruminant species and betaine is proposed as a dietary mitigation method. Merino ewes (n = 36, 40 kg, n = 6 per group) were maintained at thermoneutral (TN, n = 18, 21 °C) or cyclical HE (n = 18, 18–43 °C) conditions for 21 days, and supplemented with either 0 (control), 2 or 4 g betaine/day. Sheep had ad libitum access to water and were pair fed such that intake of sheep on the TN treatment matched that of HE animals. Heart rate (HR), respiration rate (RR), rectal (T(R)) and skin temperatures (T(S)) were measured 3 times daily (0900 h, 1300 h, 1700 h). Plasma samples were obtained on 8 days for glucose and NEFA analysis. The HE treatment increased T(R) by 0.7 °C (40.1 vs. 39.4 °C for HE and TN respectively p < 0.001), T(S) by +1.8 °C (39.3 vs. 37.5 °C, p < 0.001) and RR by +46 breaths/min (133 vs. 87 breaths/min, p < 0.001) compared to TN. The 2 g betaine/day treatment decreased T(R) (39.8, 39.6 and 39.8 °C, p < 0.001), T(S) (38.7, 38.0 and 38.5 °C, p < 0.001) and RR (114, 102 and 116 breaths/min for control, 2 and 4 g betaine/day, p < 0.001) compared to control. Betaine supplementation decreased plasma NEFA concentrations by ~25 μM (80, 55 and 54 μmol/L for 0, 2 and 4 g/day respectively, p = 0.05). These data indicate that dietary betaine supplementation at 2 g betaine/day provides improvements in physiological responses typical of ewes exposed to heat stress and may be a beneficial supplement for the management of sheep during summer. MDPI 2016-08-29 /pmc/articles/PMC5035946/ /pubmed/27589811 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani6090051 Text en © 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article DiGiacomo, Kristy Simpson, Sarah Leury, Brian J. Dunshea, Frank R. Dietary Betaine Impacts the Physiological Responses to Moderate Heat Conditions in a Dose Dependent Manner in Sheep |
title | Dietary Betaine Impacts the Physiological Responses to Moderate Heat Conditions in a Dose Dependent Manner in Sheep |
title_full | Dietary Betaine Impacts the Physiological Responses to Moderate Heat Conditions in a Dose Dependent Manner in Sheep |
title_fullStr | Dietary Betaine Impacts the Physiological Responses to Moderate Heat Conditions in a Dose Dependent Manner in Sheep |
title_full_unstemmed | Dietary Betaine Impacts the Physiological Responses to Moderate Heat Conditions in a Dose Dependent Manner in Sheep |
title_short | Dietary Betaine Impacts the Physiological Responses to Moderate Heat Conditions in a Dose Dependent Manner in Sheep |
title_sort | dietary betaine impacts the physiological responses to moderate heat conditions in a dose dependent manner in sheep |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5035946/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27589811 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani6090051 |
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