Dairy cows have high incidences of metabolic disturbances, which often lead to disease, having a subsequent significant impact on productivity and reproductive performance. As the milk fatty acid (FA) profile represents a fingerprint of the cow's nutritional and metabolic status, it could be a suitable indicator of metabolic status at the cow level. In this study, we obtained milk FA profile and a set of metabolic indicators (body condition score, ultrasound liver measurements, and 29 hematochemical parameters) from 297 Holstein-Friesian cows. First, we applied a multivariate factor analysis to detect latent structure among the milk FAs. We then explored the associations between these new synthetic variables and the morphometric, ultrasonographic and hematic indicators of immune and metabolic status. Significant associations were exhibited by the odd-chain FAs, which were inversely associated with β-hydroxybutyrate and ceruloplasmin, and positively associated with glucose, albumin, and γ-glutamyl transferase. Short-chain FAs were inversely related to predicted triacylglycerol liver content. Rumen biohydrogenation intermediates were associated with glucose, cholesterol, and albumin. These results offer new insights into the potential use of milk FAs as indicators of variations in energy and nutritional metabolism in early lactating dairy cows.
Keywords: blood metabolites; dairy cows; fatty acids; multivariate factor analysis; stress.