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Exploring connections between metabolic profiles, stress responses and immune function
Livestock production faces new challenges as current and pending legislation and media propaganda seeks to alter current management practices. Therefore, researchers and producers must search for alternative management strategies to mitigate possible negative effects associated with these regulatory changes. While the effects of stress on immune function have been studied in considerable detail, there are unexplored factors that influence immune function and animal health. Implementing new health management and nutritional protocols will require a more in-depth understanding of the biological system of an animal, especially related to how nutrition influences the immune system and overall health of the animal. Nutritional immunology will most likely become a central theme as livestock producers explore opportunities to improve animal health and performance in production facilities. This will require a greater multidisciplinary scientific approach to understand how the metabolic status of an animal may influence aspects of the immune system from cellular signaling to antibody generation. There will need to be an increased effort associated with understanding the nutrient requirements associated with maintaining a healthy immune system, as well as understanding the nutrient requirements of an animal undergoing or recovering from an immunological challenge. There will need to be more focus on understanding the differential programming of animals as it pertains to nutrient partitioning and energy utilization, and why some animals are more resilient to immunological insults while some animals are more susceptible. Exploring and understanding prenatal and perinatal strategies for pre-programming the immune system to improve postnatal health will allow for new opportunities for improving overall animal production. Understanding how energy availability, whether endogenous (e.g., genetic selection of animals) or exogenous sources (e.g., dietary supplementation), can be an effective mediator of immune function not only to reduce the severity of animal diseases, but also how it can be utilized to enhance recovery and restore homeostasis is of importance. While there will undoubtedly be multiple challenges ahead for livestock producers, there will also be exciting opportunities. Development of “designer diets” that contain various pre- and/or pro-biotic compounds or specific combinations of nutrients that are specific not only for different management systems and different stages of production, but also for targeting specific pathogens, will undoubtedly reveal novel nutritional strategies for improving future livestock production.
Keywords: metabolic profiles, stress, immunity