Vet World Vol.17 June-2024 Article - 10
Research Article
Veterinary World, 17(6): 1265-1270
https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2024.1265-1270
Influence of supplemental choline on milk yield, fatty acid profile, and weight changes in postpartum ewes and their offspring
2. Agriculture and Animal Science Department, Xochimilco Campus, Metropolitan Autonomous University, Mexico City, México.
3. Mexico State Autonomous University, México State, México.
4. Agronomy and Veterinary Faculty, Bioscience Centre, San Luis Potosí Autonomous University, México.
Background and Aim: The most intensive nutritional requirements occur during milk production’s peak. Ewe milk contains more protein and fat than cow milk. The nutritional factors significantly determine the composition. The liver undergoes high stress during lactation but is relieved by essential nutrients. Choline acts metabolically as a lipotrope. This compound functions in cell structure construction, maintenance, and acetylcholine synthesis. The animal nutrition industry provides choline from various sources, such as synthetic and natural kinds. This study evaluated the influence of two distinct choline sources on dairy ewes’ peripartum and postpartum milk production, composition, and offspring growth.
Materials and Methods: Twenty-four Rambouillet ewes, each weighing around 63.7 ± 1.7 kg, aged three with two previous births, spent 30-day pre-partum and post-partum in individual pens (2 × 2 m). They were given different experimental treatments 30 days before and after birth according to a randomized design; no choline (a), 4 g/day rumen-protected choline (RPC) (b), or 4 g/day thiocholine (c). Milk samples for milk composition and long-chain fatty acid (FA) analysis were taken every 30 days during milk collection.
Results: Significant differences (p < 0.05) in ewe body weight, lamb birth weight, and 30-day-old lamb body weight were observed at lambing and on day 30 of lactation due to choline treatment. Milk yield was significantly higher (1.57 kg/day) compared to the control (1.02 kg/day) and RPC (1.39 kg/day), due to the herbal choline source. There was no significant difference in the milk’s protein, lactose, fat, non-fat solids, and total milk solids content between the treatments. Herbal choline lowers (p < 0.05) the concentrations of caproic, caprylic, capric, lauric, and myristic acids while boosting (p < 0.05) those of oleic and cis-11-eicosenoic acid, the changes influencing long-chain FA levels (p < 0.05).
Conclusion: Providing choline from both sources to ewes enhanced milk production and body weight at lambing and on 30-day post-lambing. The herbal choline supplement altered short-chain milk FAs, while representative concentration pathways affected medium-chain ones.
Keywords: birth, milk production, milk quality, thiocholine.
How to cite this article: Crosby-Galvan MM, Mendoza GD, Hernández-García PA, Martínez-García JA, Vázquez-Valladolid A, Cifuentes-López RO, and Lee-Rangel HA (2024) Influence of supplemental choline on milk yield, fatty acid profile, and weight changes in postpartum ewes and their offspring, Veterinary World, 17(6): 1265-1270.
Received: 2024-02-05 Accepted: 2024-05-13 Published online: 2024-06-14
Corresponding author: E-mail:
DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2024.1265-1270
Copyright: Crosby-Galvan, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/ publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
