Effects of dietary supplementation of pioglitazone or walnut meal on metabolic profiles and oxidative status in dairy cows with high pre-calving BCS

Abstract

This research paper addresses the hypothesis that dietary pioglitazone (PGT), as synthetic and specific ligand for PPAR-γ or walnut meal (WM) as a natural ligand for PPAR-γ, affect plasma metabolites and reduce the oxidative status in high body condition score (BCS) dairy cows (≥4 BCS). Total of 36 multiparous Holstein cows were randomly assigned to one of the dietary treatments: 1- Control (basal diet; CTR), 2- Walnut meal (9·45% walnut meal of DMI; WM), and 3- Pioglitazone (6 mg/kg BW; PGT). The experimental diets were fed from parturition time to 21 d postpartum. Results showed that the PGT supplementation increased dry matter intake (DMI) (22·95 kg/d) compared to the CTR (21·45 kg/d) and..