Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T22:17:14.776Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Hormone changes in milk at the onset of lactogenesis and parturition in Friesland sheep

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

R. B. Heap ,
I. R. Fleet ,
M. Hamon ,
J. M. Booth  and
V. M. Chaplin
M. Hamon
Affiliation:
Agricultural and Food Research Council, Institute of Animal Physiology, Babraham, Cambridge, CB2 4AT
V. M. Chaplin
Affiliation:
Milk Marketing Board, Veterinary Laboratory, Cleeve House, Lower Wick, Worcester, WR2 4NS
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Oestrone sulphate, progesterone, total protein, Na and K concentrations in mammary secretions of Friesland sheep have been determined from 11 days before until 8 days after parturition. Mammary secretions were obtained on most days for at least 1 week before parturition in 9 of 14 ewes, and in all animals after lambing. Oestrone sulphate concentration had doubled on the morning of parturition compared with the value 24 h earlier, and this sharp rise was a useful indicator that delivery was imminent. Values continued to rise during the day of delivery, remained high for a further 24 h and then declined over the next 2 days. Progesterone, in contrast, decreased linearly between day –2 and day +2 when it reached baseline values.

Total protein concentration in pre-colostral and colostral mammary secretion (10–15 g/100 ml) was higher than that in goats, and decreased to a mean value of about 6 g/100 ml by day +8 after delivery. Na declined from about 55 mM on day –10 to 36 mM on day 0, whereas K increased from 20 to 29 mM. There was a sharp rise in K/Na, but this occurred after rather than before parturition and was not a useful predictor of parturition.

The onset of copious milk secretion occurred when oestrone sulphate in mammary secretions was high and progesterone was low, which is consistent with the hypothesis that the cessation of progesterone secretion is an important regulator of the onset of lactogenesis in sheep. Efficiency of milk secretion in the first 14 days of lactation was correlated, however, with the maximum oestrone sulphate concentration in colostrum on the day of parturition.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 106 , Issue 2 , April 1986 , pp. 265 - 269
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Challis, J. R. G. (1971). Sharp increase in free circulating oestrogens immediately before parturition in sheep. Nature, London 229, 208.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Challis, J. R. G., Harrison, F. A. & Heap, R. B. (1974). The extraction of oestrogens by the uterus of the pregnant sheep and the calculation of uterine secretion rates of oestrone and oestradiol-17β. Journal of Endocrinology 61, 227–284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleet, I. R., Goode, J. A., Hamon, M. H., Laurie, M. S., Linzell, J. L. & Peaker, M. (1975). Secretory activity of goat mammary glands during pregnancy and the onset of lactation. Journal of Physiology 251, 763–773.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fleet, I. R., Linzell, J. L. & Peaker, M. (1972). The use of an autoanalyzer for the rapid analysis of milk constituents affected by subclinical mastitis. British Veterinary Journal 128, 297–300.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hartmann, P. E., Trevethan, P. & Shelton, J. N. (1973). Progesterone and oestrogen and the initiation of lactation in ewes. Journal of Endocrinology 59, 249–259.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heap, R. B., Fleet, I. R., Proudfoot, R. & Walters, D. E. (1985). Residual milk in Friesland sheep and the galactopoietio effect associated with oxytocin treatment. Journal of Dairy Research (in the Press).Google Scholar
Heap, R. B., Galil, A. K. A., Harrison, F. A., Jenkin, G. & Perry, J. S. (1977). Progesterone and oestrogen in pregnancy and parturition: comparative aspects and hierarchical control. Ciba Foundation Symposium 47, 127–157.Google Scholar
Heap, R. B., Hamon, M. & Fleet, I. R. (1984). Transport of oestrone sulphate by the mammary gland in the goat. Journal of Endocrinology 101, 221–230.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heap, R. B. & Holdsworth, R. J. (1981). Hormone assays in reproduction and fertility. British Veterinary Journal 137, 561–571.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heap, R. B., Holdsworth, R. J., Gadsby, J. E., Laing, J. A. & Walters, D. E. (1976). Pregnancy diagnosis in the cow from milk progesterone concentrations. British Veterinary Journal 132, 445–464.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holdsworth, R. J., Chaplin, V. M. & Booth, J. M. (1979). Radioimmunoassay of progesterone in milk: development of techniques for large-scale use as a test of pregnancy. British Veterinary Journal 135, 470–477.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holdsworth, R. J., Heap, R. B., Booth, J. M. & Hamon, M. (1982). A rapid radioimmunoassay for the measurement of oestrone sulphate in the milk of dairy cows and its use in pregnancy diagnosis. Journal of Endocrinology 95, 7–12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Laing, J. A. & Heap, R. B. (1971). The concentration of progesterone in the milk of cows during the reproductive cycle. British Veterinary Journal 127, xix–xxii.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Linzell, J. L. (1966). Measurement of udder volume in live goats as an index of mammary growth and function. Journal of Dairy Science 49, 307–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linzell, J. L. (1971). Goats. In The UFAW Handbook on the Care and Management of Farm Animals, pp. 90–98. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.Google Scholar
Linzell, J. L. & Peaker, M. (1974). Changes in colostrum composition and in the permeability of the mammary epithelium at about the time of parturition in the goat Journal of Physiology 243, 129–151.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maule, Walker F. M., Davis, A. J. & Fleet, I. R. (1983). Endocrine activity of the mammary gland: oestrogen and prostaglandin secretion by the cow and sheep mammary glands during lactogenesis. British Veterinary Journal 139, 171–177.Google Scholar
Maule, Walker F. M., Stewart, H. J. & Thompson, G. E. (1982). The lactogenic response to pre-partum milking and synthetic ACTH in British Saanen goats and Friesland sheep. Journal of Physiology 325, 72–73P.Google Scholar
Mills, O. (1984). Practical Sheep Dairying. Wellingborough, Northamptonshire: Thorsons Publishers Limited.Google Scholar
Peaker, M. & Linzell, J. L. (1975). Citrate in milk: a harbinger of lactogenesis. Nature, London 253, 464.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Perry, J. S., Heap, R. B. & Ackland, N. (1975). The infrastructure of the sheep placenta around the time of parturition. Journal of Anatomy 120, 561–570.Google Scholar
Thorburn, G. D. & Challis, J. R. G. (1979). Endocrinology of parturition. Physiological Reviews 59, 863–916.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tsang, C. P. W. (1974). Changes in plasma levels of estrone sulfate and estrone in the pregnant owe around parturition. Steroids 23, 855–868.CrossRefGoogle Scholar