Effects of heat stress during late gestation on the dam and its calf.

Heat stress during late gestation in cattle negatively impacts the performance of the dam and its calf. This brief exposure to an adverse environment before parturition impacts the physiological responses, tissue development, metabolism and immune function of the dam and her offspring, thereby limiting their productivity. During the dry period of a dairy cow, heat stress blunts mammary involution by attenuating mammary apoptosis and autophagic activity, and reduces subsequent mammary cell proliferation, leading to impaired milk production in the next lactation. Dairy cows in early lactation that experience prepartum heat stress display reduced adipose tissue mobilization and lower degree of insulin resistance in peripheral tissues. Similar to mammary gland development, placental function is impaired by heat stress as evidenced by reduced secretion of placental hormones (e.g., estrone sulfate) in late gestation cows, which partly explains the reduced fetal growth rate and lighter birth weight of the calves. Compared with dairy calves born to dams that are exposed to evaporative cooling during summer, calves born to non-cooled dry cows maintain lower body weight until 1 yr of age, but display a stronger ability to absorb glucose during metabolic challenges postnatally. Immunity of the calves, both passive and cell-mediated immune function, is also impaired by prenatal heat stress, resulting in increased susceptibility of the calves to diseases in their postnatal life. In fact, dairy heifers born to heat-stressed dry cows without evaporative cooling have a greater chance leaving the herd before puberty compared with heifers born to dry cows provided with evaporative cooling (12.2 vs. 22.7%). Dairy heifers born to late gestation heat-stressed dry cows have lower milk yield at maturity during their first and second lactations. Emerging evidence suggest that late gestation heat stress alters the mammary gland microstructure of the heifers during the first lactation, and exerts epigenetic alterations that might explain, in part their impaired productivity.