Dr. Andres Contreras Bravo: Addressing Ketosis in Cows | Ep. 04

Ketosis is a constant and persistent metabolic disorder in post-calving cows on dairy farms. Due to the need to produce more milk, cows cannot consume enough energy to maintain their performance, which leads to a negative energy balance. That's when the cows start mobilizing fat to try to fix the energy problem. The problem is that this culminates in a higher load of ketone bodies and ultimately, it might lead to ketosis. In this episode, I have a great conversation with Dr. Andres Contreras Bravo about the fat mobilization and ketosis challenges of cows in dairy production. We also discuss some of the technologies that can help control or prevent ketosis from happening.

“High ketone concentration is a problem for the individual cow – especially if she has clinical symptoms.” - Dr. Andres Contreras Bravo

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻:

1. Fat mobilization in cows
2. Implications of excessive fat to the cow
3. Ketosis in dairy cows
4. Challenges in monitoring ketones
5. Technologies to predict ketone concentrations in the milk
6. How to prevent ketosis in your dairy cow
7. Key points on cows’ fat mobilization

𝗠𝗲𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁: Dr. Andres Contreras Bravo grew up in Colombia, where he earned his DVM, in 2001, at Universidad Nacional de Colombia. After that, he came to the US to pursue a Master’s Degree in Mastitis and Milk Quality, at Michigan State University, in 2008. He then earned a PhD in Nutritional Immunology at the same university, in 2010. Dr. Bravo is currently a Professor at Michigan State University and his main research interests are lipid mobilization and lipid mediator biosynthesis in periparturient dairy cows.

𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗼𝗻 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁𝘀, 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗺𝗮𝗷𝗼𝗿 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺.

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