Iowa State University, USA, Department of Animal Biosciences
Presentation title: Reevaluating transition cow dogmas. It’s time to question conventional thinking.
Lance Baumgard is Distinguished Professor and the Normal Jacobson Professor of Nutritional Physiology in the Department of Animal Science at Iowa State University. He is a leading researcher in the field of animal nutrition, and physiology. He and his team have published more than 200 peer reviewed articles in scientific journals. His main field of research is concentrating on nutrition, metabolism and heat stress.
On dairy farms disease incidence is highest in the first 3 weeks of lactation. Despite conflicting evidence, the dogma for last 40 years was that it is the NEFA’s, hyperketonemia, and hypocalcemia that cause these health issues. In his lecture Dr. Baumgard is debunking this dogma and argues that it is biologically more plausible that it is immune activation that causes these transition cow health issues, and to prevent these, management and hygiene around the transition period simply need to be improved.
