Cattle temperament influences metabolism: Metabolic response to glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity tests in beef steers

Cattle temperament, defined as the reactivity of cattle to humans or novel environments, can greatly influence several physiological systems in the body, including immunity, stress, and most recently discovered, metabolism. Greater circulating concentrations of non-esterified fatty acids (NEFAs) found in temperamental cattle suggests that temperamental cattle are metabolically different than calm cattle. Further, elevated NEFA concentrations have been reported to influence insulin sensitivity. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine whether cattle temperament would influence the metabolic response to a glucose tolerance test (GTT) and insulin sensitivity test (IST).

Source: Domestic Animal Endocrinology - March 3, 2016 Category: Endocrinology Authors: N.C. Burdick Sanchez, J.A. Carroll, P.R. Broadway, H.D. Hughes, S.L. Roberts, J.T. Richeson, T.B. Schmidt, R.C. Vann Source Type: research