MODULATION OF FEEDING BEHAVIOR IN LACTATING DAIRY COWS BY SWEET SENSORY ADDITIVES

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The aim of this study was to evaluate changes in feeding behavior and performance of lactating dairy cows in response to the addition of sensory additives into their TMR. A 90-d experiment was conducted involving 42 lactating cows (15 primiparous, 27 multiparous; BW = 690 ± 63 kg; DIM = 148 ± 73; milk yield = 38 ± 8 kg/d) randomly allocated to 3 treatments and fed a common TMR (15.4% CP, 29.2% NDF, 1.67 Mcal of NEl/kg). Treatments were either no supplementation (CON) or supplementation with sensory additive A (SAA – containing stevia glycosides) or B (SAB – the same formulation without stevia glycosides) at 30 g/d. Dry matter intake (DMI), milk production, milk composition, BW, feeding behavior, and feed efficiency (FE) were determined daily. Data were analyzed with a mixed-effect model that included the fixed effects of treatment, parity, week, and their 2-way interactions. Results are shown in Table 1. Feed intake was reduced (P < 0.001) when both sensory additives were added into the TMR.However, milk yield and composition did not differ among treatments.Regarding feeding behavior, SAB reduced (P < 0.001) the number of meals and eating time, and increased (P < 0.001) meal size compared with SAA and CON. In contrast, SAA reduced meal size (P < 0.001) and eating rate (P < 0.001) compared with SAB and CON. The use of sweet sensory additives may modulate feeding behavior in lactating dairy cows; nevertheless, such a response appears to be dictated by their composition (i.e., sweet ingredients).

Autores: M. Blanch, F. Bargo, G. Tedó, I. R. Ipharraguerre, I. Guasch, A. Bach.

Libro/Revista: 2017 ADSA Annual Meeting (Pittsburgh), Journal of Dairy Science, Volume 100, Supplement 2 (Abstract: M233).