Prepartum anti-inflammatory treatment in Holstein dairy cattle: Effects on type 1/type 2 immunity in neonatal calves.

Prepartum ASA administration may enhance neonatal calf type 1 immunity and correlates with improved passive immune transfer.

This randomized controlled trial investigated the effects of prepartum acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) administration to Holstein dairy cows on type 1/type 2 immune ratios in their neonatal calves. A total of 205 prepartum cows from a commercial Pennsylvania dairy were enrolled and blocked by parity, then randomized to receive either 125g oral ASA (n=102) or placebo (n=103) at 14±3 days before expected calving. Only live singleton heifer calves were included in calf-level analyses (ASA-CLF n=47; PLC-CLF n=46). Blood samples were collected within 3 days of birth and weekly through 4 weeks of age. Calves born to ASA-treated dams demonstrated significantly higher type 1/type 2 immunity ratios within the first 3 days of life compared to placebo calves (0.079 vs. 0.059; p=0.0003). Across both groups, type 1/type 2 ratios declined significantly over the neonatal period, peaking at 24-72 hours and reaching nadir at 21-23 days. Notably, type 1/type 2 immunity ratios were positively correlated with both serum total protein and IgG concentrations, suggesting that a type 1-biased immune profile may be associated with superior passive immune transfer. These findings indicate that prepartum anti-inflammatory therapy with ASA may beneficially modulate neonatal calf immunity, potentially through mechanisms influencing colostrum quality or composition. The authors acknowledge that further mechanistic research is warranted to fully elucidate the relationship between maternal ASA treatment and neonatal immune programming.

This summary was distilled by AI and may occasionally misinterpret data. Confirm critical details with the primary literature before clinical application.