Profile of serum lipid metabolites of one-week-old goat kids depending on the type of rearing

BACKGROUND: Weaning of goat kids immediately after birth and feeding them on bovine or heat-treated caprine colostrum, referred to as snatching, is considered an effective control measure in some infectious diseases.

The study was carried out in one-week-old goat kids to gain insight into the profile of lipid metabolites and to investigate the influence of snatching on kids’ metabolism.

Fifty-two goat kids born to 23 female goats were included in the study – 22 kids were weaned immediately after birth and kept isolated from their mothers; 30 remaining kids were left with their mothers for next 3 weeks so that they could nurse on dams’ milk at will.

Blood was collected at the age of 1 week and serum was obtained by centrifugation.

The concentration of lipid metabolites was determined with mass spectrometry using a commercial MxP® Quant 500 kit (Biocrates Life Sciences AG, Innsbruck, Austria).

RESULTS: Concentration of 240 lipid metabolites belonging to 10 lipid classes was above the limit of detection of the assay.

These lipid metabolites were quantified and included in the analysis.

Concentration of 2 lipid classes (acyl-alkyl-phosphatidylcholines and ceramides) and 31 lipid metabolites (14 triacylglycerols, 5 acyl-alkyl-phosphatidylcholines, 2 diacylphosphatidylcholines, 1 lyso-phosphatidylcholine, 5 ceramides, 2 sphingomyelins, and 2 cholesterol esters) differed significantly between the two groups of kids.

CONCLUSION: Snatching of kids results in reduction of serum concentration of lipid metabolites, however, the magnitude of this phenomenon does not seem to be sufficient to negatively affect kids’ health condition.

This study is the first in which the broad set of lipid metabolites of young ruminants was quantified using the novel metabolomic assay MxP® Quant 500 kit.