MAMMARY EPITHELIAL CELLS LOSSES INTO MILK AFFECT MAMMARY CELL NUMBER AND MILK YIELD OF LACTATING DAIRY COWS

The focus of this project is dairy cows and their loss of mammary epithelial cells into milk that reduces milk production and lactation persistency. Increased lactation persistency increases the proportion of productive days during a cow's lifetime, thus reducing the number of unproductive days and the nutrients consumed during them. Increased lactation persistency reduces the proportion of days spent in transition periods when cows are at increased risk for metabolic disease and infection. The long-term goal of our work is to increase lactation persistency and nutrient utilization efficiency.Objective 1 is to identify and characterize the mammary epithelial cell populations lost into milk.Objective 2 is to identify regulatory factors that influence mammary epithelial cell losses in milk.