Yushu yaks face nutritional deficiency and poor production performance in the cold season on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, yet their metabolic responses to different feeding modes remain unclear. This study investigated the effects of traditional grazing, grazing with concentrate supplementation, and TMR stall-feeding on 90 four-year-old Yushu yaks (30 per group) during a 180-day cold-season trial, by determining body weight changes, serum biochemical parameters and plasma metabolic profiles. Stall-fed yaks had the highest average daily gain (259.05 ± 61.56 g/d), while grazing yaks showed negative gain (−279.50 ± 44.45 g/d) and supplementary-fed yaks had intermediate performance; grazing yaks had stronger antioxidant enzyme activity, and supplemented/stall-fed yaks had higher serum mineral and albumin levels. Metabolomic analysis identified 2024 plasma metabolites, with grazing yaks enriched in plateau adaptation and antioxidant pathways, stall-fed yaks in energy metabolism pathways, and supplementary-fed yaks in both growth and antioxidant pathways. Our findings confirm that gradient nutritional interventions regulate the balance between yak growth and plateau adaptability, with concentrate supplementation as the optimal cold-season feeding mode for local herders and stall-feeding suitable for intensive breeding to maximize growth efficiency.
Liang et al. (Fri,) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: