Optimisation of the Fatty Acid Analysis in Hair of Cattle as a Marker for Energy Supply and Animal Welfare in Dairy Cattle

The fatty acid composition of hair mirrors the energy availability of a cow. Recently, the negative energy balance at the beginning of lactation has been associated with the percentage of de novo synthesized fatty acids in the hair. Therefore, the fatty acid composition of hair could be used as biomarker for evaluating the energy supply and metabolism of an animal. However, the present costs for the fatty acid analysis is very high, which prevents its application in the field. Thus, the project aims at reducing the costs of the fatty acid analysis of cattle hair through the development of an optimized protocol. Subsequently, the optimized protocol will be applied for the characterization of the energy supply at the beginning of lactation of a large population of lactating cows.