Environmental temperature-induced metabolic changes in dams can be reflected by alterations in metabolomic and fatty acid profiles in colostrum. The colostrum from 13 Black Bengal (BB) dams was collected on the day of parturition at two consecutive parities during the hot conditions (HCs) of summer or rainy seasons and the cold conditions (CCs) of winter. The metabolomic and fatty acid profiles were analyzed using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, respectively. The results showed significantly higher sarcosine, tyrosine, citrate, succinate, galactose, acetylglucosamine, carnitine, choline, glycerophosphocholine, and trimethylamine N-oxide during CCs than HCs; potential discriminant metabolites according to VIP scores were sarcosine, succinate, and choline. Colostrum from CCs had significantly lower levels of saturated fatty acids (SFAs), including butyric acid (C4:0), myristic acid (C14:0), and pentadecanoic acid (C15:0), but higher omega-9 monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs), especially oleic acid (C18:1n9c), elaidic acid (C18:1n9t), and eicosenoic acid (C20:1n9), than in HC. Linoleic acid (C18:2n6c) and the omega 6/omega 3 PUFA ratio were higher during CCs than HCs. It is concluded that a metabolic shift for nutrient utilization occurs, from glucose during HCs toward fat during CCs, which may not be due to the diet but rather neurohumoral alterations occurring during temperature adaptation.
Buranakarl et al. (Thu,) studied this question.