Nitrogen metabolism and mammary gland amino acid utilization in lactating dairy cows with different residual feed intake

OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to enhance our understanding of nitrogen (N) metabolism and mammary amino acid (AA) utilization in lactating cows with divergent phenotypes of residual feed intake (RFI). METHODS: Fifty-three multiparous mid-lactation Holstein dairy cows were selected for RFI measurements over a 50-d experimental period. The 26 cows with the most extreme RFI values were classified into the high RFI (n = 13) and low RFI (n = 13) groups, respectively, for analysis of N metabolism and AA utilization. RESULTS: Compared with the high RFI cows, the low RFI animals had lower dry matter intake (p<0.01) with no difference observed in milk yield between the two groups (p> 0.10). However, higher ratios of milk yield to dry matter intake (p<0.01) were found in the low RFI cows than in the high RFI cows. The low RFI cows had significant greater ratios of milk protein to metabolizable protein (p = 0.02) and milk protein to crude protein intake than the high RFI cows (p = 0.01). The arterial concentration and mammary uptake of essential AA (p<0.10), branched-chain AA (p<0.10), and total AA (p<0.10) tended to be lower in the low RFI cows. Additionally, the low RFI cows tended to have a lower ratio of AA uptake to milk output for essential AA (p = 0.08), branched-chain AA (p = 0.07) and total AA (p = 0.09) than the high RFI cows. CONCLUSION: In summary, both utilization of metabolizable protein for milk protein and mammary AA utilization are more efficient in cows with lower RFI than in the high RFI cows. Our results provide new insight into the protein metabolic processes (related to N and AA) involved in feed efficiency.