Michael Derno

Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN) | FBN · Nutritional Physiology 'Oskar Kellner' Research Unit

Prebiotic supplements and high-protein (HP) diets reduce body weight and modulate intestinal microbiota. Our aim was to elucidate the combined effect of an inulin/oligofructose (FOS) and HP diet on body weight gain, energy metabolism and faecal microbiota. Forty male C57BL/6NCrl mice were fed a control (C) diet for 2 weeks and allocated to a C or H...

Intensified milk replacer (MR) feeding in calves has nutritional long-term effects and is suggested to increase milk production later in life. However, the underlying mechanisms are not completely understood. The aim of our study was to investigate whether MR feeding intensity has long-term effects on energy metabolism and energy use efficiency of...

Ammonia emissions have wide-ranging negative consequences for human, animal and environmental health. Regulations including EU Directive 2016/2284 require European Union member states to reduce emissions. Dairy farming has one of the highest levels of ammonia emissions. Most dairy barns in Germany are naturally ventilated to meet higher animal welf...

Respiratory Chambers (RCs) were originally constructed with the purpose to study heat production from animals by quantifying oxygen (O2) consumption and carbon dioxide (CO2) production (initially detailed in the 18th century by Lavoisier and Leplace; for the history of calorimetry, see McLean and Tobin [1]. Enteric methane (CH4) is measured in calo...

Urine and fecal excretions from cattle contributing to global nitrogen (N) emissions. The milk urea nitrogen (MUN) concentration in dairy cows is positively correlated with urinary urea N (UUN) emissions, and both decline with the reduction in crude protein intake. However, MUN concentration may differ between individual cows despite feeding the sa...

Background: Transformation of feed energy ingested by ruminants into milk is accompanied by energy losses via fecal and urine excretions, fermentation gases and heat. Heat production may differ among dairy cows despite comparable milk yield and body weight. Therefore, heat production can be considered an indicator of metabolic efficiency and direct...

A growing need exists for the development of practical feeding strategies to mitigate methane (CH4) emissions from cattle. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of milk replacer feeding intensity (MFI) in calves on CH4 emission, rumen development, and performance. Twenty-eight female newborn Holstein calves were rando...

Colostrum provides high amounts of nutritive and non-nutritive substrates, which are essential for calf nutrition and passive immunization. Colostral growth factors and hormones have beneficial effects on postnatal maturation and may affect substrate utilization and energy expenditure in neonatal calves. We tested the hypothesis that energy metabol...

A novel doubly [1-¹³C, α-¹⁵NH2]-labelled amino acid method (DLAAM) is presented for the determination of the CO2 production (RCO2) and energy expenditure in humans. This method is based on the simultaneous administration of [1-¹³C]glycine and [¹⁵N]glycine followed by the measurement of excretion kinetics of breath ¹³CO2 and urinary ¹⁵N. The basic i...

The variation in feed efficiency among dairy cows is due to differences in fermentation and digestion characteristics, but recent studies have suggested that various aspects of postabsorptive metabolic processes including heat production or the metabolizable energy for maintenance are more crucial. Thus, metabolic efficiency largely determines feed...

Prebiotics such as inulin and oligofructose (FOS) are non-digestible nutritional compounds, which increase gastric filling, intestinal motility and short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production. FOS supplementation to a high-fat but not control diet prevented body weight gain and exerted positive effects on insulin resistance and lipid metabolism (1). H...

Our aim was to compare the energy balance estimated (EBest) according to equations published by various energy feeding systems (German Society for Nutrition Physiology, French National Institute for Agricultural Research, and National Research Council) and the EB calculated by use of calorimetrically measured heat production (EBhp) of 20 high-yield...

Milk fatty acids (MFA) are a proxy for the prediction of CH4 emission from cows, and prediction differs with diet. Our objectives were (1) to compare the effect of diets on the relation between MFA profile and measured CH4 production, (2) to predict CH4 production based on 6 data sets differing in the number and type of MFA, and (3) to test whether...

The pressure-based noseband sensor system (RWS: RumiWatch System; ITIN + HOCH GmbH Feeding Technology, Liestal, Switzerland) has recently been validated for the measurement of rumination time in mature cows. We aimed in this study at developing a similar pressure-based system for monitoring rumination in young dairy calves. To this end, a vegetable...

Ruminant enteric methane emission contributes to global warming. Although breeding low methane-emitting cows appears to be possible through genetic selection, doing so requires methane emission quantification by using elaborate instrumentation (respiration chambers, SF6 technique, GreenFeed) not feasible on a large scale. It has been suggested that...

Increasing the dietary fat content of ruminant diets decreases methane (CH4) production. This effect is caused by the toxic properties of fatty acids on rumen microbial populations, coating of feed particles diminishing the accessibility for microbes, and a reduction in dry matter intake (DMI). The latter effect is caused by postabsorptive long-cha...

High performing dairy cows experience distinct metabolic stress during periods of negative energy balance. Subclinical disorders of the cow’s energy metabolism facilitate failure of adaptational responses resulting in health problems and reduced performance. The autonomic nervous system (ANS) with its sympathetic and parasympathetic branches plays...

In this study, the handheld laser methane detector (LMD) was discussed as a tool for estimating the methane emissions of individual dairy cows by measuring the profiles of the exhaled air. Data obtained with the most recent generation of the device were compared with those of indirect open-circuit respiration chambers, which are commonly used to qu...

Our objective was to compare the ranking of dairy cows according to their methane (CH) emissions as measured by a respiration chamber (RC) technique and the GreenFeed (GF) technique during 3 periods in second lactation. Two-day CH measurements in a RC performed in wk 3, 14, and 42 of lactation were flanked by GF measurements for 20 (period 1 [P1]),...

Our objective was to compare the ranking of dairy cows according to their methane (CH4) emissions as measured by a respiration chamber (RC) technique and the GreenFeed (GF) technique during 3 periods in second lactation. Twoday CH4 measurements in a RC performed in wk 3, 14, and 42 of lactation were flanked by GF measurements for 20 (period 1 [P1])...

Laser Methane Detectors (LMD) can be used to quantify CH4 emissions in the air exhaled by dairy cows. Aim of the present study was to validate the new version of the LMD (LMM mini-g, Crowcon Detection Instruments) with respect to measuring concentrations of CH4 comparing two devices among each other and with measurements in respiration chambers at...

Long-chain fatty acids mobilized during early lactation of dairy cows are increasingly used as energy substrate at the expense of acetate. As the synthesis of acetate in the rumen is closely linked to methane (CH4) production, we hypothesized that decreased acetate utilization would result in lower ruminal acetate levels and thus CH4 production. Tw...

Flavonoids are secondary plant metabolites with several health promoting effects. As dairy cows often suffer from metabolic imbalance and health problems, interest is growing in health improvements by plant substances such as flavonoids. Our group has recently shown that the flavonoids quercetin and rutin (a glucorhamnoside of quercetin) are bioava...

Respiration chambers equipped with O2, CO2 and CH4 gas analysers allow the short-term measurement of gas exchange as a prerequisite to study dynamics in energy metabolism of farm animals. Starting from those technical aspects and limitations of dynamic gas exchange recordings, this chapter covers the mathematical evaluation of data obtained from sh...

The aim of the present experiment was to compare silage prepared from maize having a brown midrib (BMR) mutation with control (CTR) maize to identify their effects on enteric methane emission, digesta mean retention time (MRT), ruminal fermentation and digestibility. In addition, the utility of archaeol present in faecal samples was validated as a...

High ambient temperatures have severe adverse effects on biological functions of high-yielding dairy cows. The metabolic adaption to heat stress was examined in 14 German Holsteins transition cows assigned to two groups, one heat-stressed (HS) and one pair-fed (PF) at the level of HS. After 6 days of thermoneutrality and ad libitum feeding (P1), co...

Periparturient dairy cows experience metabolic challenges that result in a negative energy balance (EB) and a range of postpartum health problems. To compensate for the negative EB, cows mobilize fatty acids from adipose tissues, which can lead to fatty liver disease, a periparturient metabolic disorder. Flavonoids, such as quercetin (Q), are polyp...

Abstract Text: Ruminants can utilize feedstuffs which are not in competition with human food. In 10 German Holstein cows, 4 in 1st (L1; BW 562 kg) and 6 in 2nd(L2; BW 615 kg) lactation, 2 TMR rations fed ad lib were compared in regard to methane production. Ration 1 (R1) contained a mixture of grass silage, grass hay + straw (total of 22% DM), an...

Agouti-related protein (AgRP), produced by neurons located in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus stimulates feed intake. During early lactation dairy cows increase their feed intake and additionally mobilize their fat reserves leading to increased plasma non-esterified fatty acid (NEFA) concentrations. Since cows with a higher extent of fat mo...

A thrifty energy metabolism has been suggested in intrauterine growth restricted (IUGR) offspring. We characterized energy metabolism and substrate oxidation patterns in IUGR pigs in response to food restriction (FR) and refeeding (RFD). Female pigs with low (L; 1.1 kg; n = 20) or normal birth weight (N; 1.5 kg; n = 24) were fed ad libitum after we...

The peptide hormone ghrelin is produced in the ruminal and proximal duodenal wall with a small portion of ghrelin being post-translationally modified by fatty acids at Ser3. Both forms (desacyl and acyl ghrelin) are released into the blood stream and have been initially assigned a role in the control of feed intake. While acyl ghrelin increases fee...

Catecholamines increase around parturition in dairy cows and the hepatic adrenergic system is involved in metabolic adaptation during early lactation, e. g., by stimulation of hepatic glucose production (glycogenolysis and gluconeogenesis) after parturition to cover glucose demands (McDowell, 1983; Nonogaki, 2000; Weber et al., 2013). Effects of ad...

During the transition from late pregnancy to early lactation, high-yielding dairy cows mobilize large amounts of adipose tissue resulting in increased plasma concentrations of non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA). NEFA are mostly oxidized to CO2 whereas at excessive concentrations, NEFA are re-esterified to form triacylglycerides leading to the develo...

Intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) has been shown to affect intestinal growth, resulting in impaired feed utilization, growth performance, and development of skeletal muscle (Quiniou et al., 2002; Wu et al., 2006; Michiels et al., 2013). This leads to altered muscle and fat proportions (Powell and Aberle, 1980; Rehfeldt et al., 2006). Temporary...

In addition to plasma metabolites and hormones participating as humoral signals in the control of feed intake, oxidative metabolic processes in peripheral organs also generate signals to terminate feeding. Although the degree of oxidation over longer periods is relatively constant, recent work suggests that the periprandial pattern of fuel oxidatio...

Ghrelin is a gastrointestinal peptide hormone which is present in blood mostly in a non-posttranslationally-modified form, with a minor proportion acylated at Ser3. Both ghrelin forms were initially assigned a role in the control of food intake but there is accumulating evidence for their involvement in fat allocation and utilization. We investigat...

Using a mouse model long-term selected for high body mass (DU6i), we investigated if their higher degree of body fat as compared to unselected controls (DUKsi) was due to a greater fat accumulation, attributable to differences in substrate oxidation in response to a higher fat intake. We measured energy expenditure (EE) and substrate oxidation by...

The used model equation for prediction of the daily methane production of dairy cows, heifers and fattening young bulls is based on 337 methane measurements in 1500 single metabolism experiments in respiration chambers. The equation is: y = 32.76 - 0.384x (y = g methane per kg DM intake, x = DM intake in g per kg live weight). Accordingly the mean...

An extensive number of metabolic experiments have been carried out at the former Oskar-Kellner-Institute, now the ›Oskar Kellner‹ Research Unit of Nutritional Physiology at the Research Institute for the Biology of Farm Animals (FBN), Dummerstorf, on cattle, pigs and humans. Their expired amounts of CO2 having been compiled and stratified with rega...

An extensive number of investigations on the energetic utilization efficiency of nutrients and feedstuffs by cattle were carried out in the former Oskar-Kellner-Institute (now the »Oskar Kellner« Research Unit of Nutritional Physiology at the Research Institute for the Biology of Farm Animals (FBN), Dummerstorf). The amounts of methane (CH4) that t...

An open-circuit indirect calorimetry system consisting of 4 climate-controlled respiration chambers for cattle has been constructed and validated. The system allows for the continuous monitoring of O(2), CO(2), and CH(4) concentrations in chamber air, and the simultaneous determination of feed and water intake, overall physical activity, position c...

Dietary energetic impact on oxidative stress is incompletely understood. Therefore, effects of diets on oxidative stress were studied using a crossover block design. In Expt 1, intake of metabolizable energy (ME) was restricted or ad libitum. In Expt 2, isoenergetic and isonitrogenic diets were fed, replacing carbohydrate energy by energy of fatty...

Background & aims Energy expenditure is an important physiological parameter for providing nutrition guidelines in healthy and ill humans as well as animals. As a potential method for measuring energy expenditure (EE) of human subjects at their habitual physical activity or actual disease condition, the oral stable isotope 13C bicarbonate tracer te...

We explored the applicability of the 13C bicarbonate dilution technique for determination of energy expenditure (EE) in young bulls in comparison to whole body indirect calorimetry (IC). Twelve bulls of a F2 German Holstein x Charolais cross (4.5 months, 332±16 kg BM) received a diet providing 1000 kJ ME d−1 kg BM−0.75 and 4.3 g crude protein d−1 k...

Juvenile growing pigs were studied to explore whether a soy-based diet can induce persistent physiological alterations, especially in protein and energy metabolism, nutrient oxidation and redox homeostasis. In former studies we have shown that in juvenile pigs chronically fed protein diets based on either casein (CAS) or soy protein isolate (SPI),...

In this study data originating from complete metabolic trials with cattle of both sexes, fed 337 rations at feed intake levels between one to three times maintenance energy requirement were used to regress the total CH4 emission to the level of DM intake and to the nutrient composition, respectively. A major component of the measured CH4 emission c...

Our results in a previous study indicated that the portal absorption of intragastrically fed alpha-ketoglutarate (AKG) was limited in young pigs. Our aim was to quantify the net portal absorption, first-pass metabolism, and whole-body flux of enterally infused AKG. In study 1, we quantified the net portal nutrient absorption in young pigs (n = 9) g...

alpha-Ketoglutarate (AKG) has been suggested to play a particular role as an oxidative fuel for the gut, and thus may have a sparing function for fuels such as glutamate and aspartate. Using the pig model we aimed to quantify how the route of administration (intravenous, i.v.; intragastric, i.g.; intraduodenal, i.d.) affects AKG utilization, whole...

This study aimed to test the hypothesis that maintenance energy requirement (MEm) can be estimated from continuous heat production measurements during a change from a near maintenance feeding level to far below maintenance for two consecutive days. The MEm of eight Hereford steers weighing 286 +/- 5 kg (mean +/- SE) was determined in a balance tria...

An experiment was conducted to examine the response to wheat gluten (WG)-based diets at two lysine levels in adult minipigs (23 kg BW) using the indicator AA oxidation (IAAO) approach and N balance. Twenty minipigs (n = five per group), fitted with reentrant ileoileal cannulas allowing collection of ileal effluents, were fed restrictively two WG-b...

Two feeding experiments were carried out with castrated male pigs weighing between 10 and 30 kg to study acute and persisting dietary effects on growth and on protein and energy metabolism in growing pigs. Pigs were fed semi-synthetic isoenergetic and isonitrogenous diets at 50% protein requirement with either soy protein isolate (SPI) or casein (C...

In Charolais (CH) as beef and German Holstein (H) as dairy cattle, differences in concentrations of hormones regulating partitioning of nutrients, are expected. Charolais (n=13) and Holstein (n=12) bulls 9 months of age were fed every 4 h. Blood samples were taken every 20 min over 6 h. The average plasma concentration of growth hormone (GH) did no...

Effects of the presence or absence of ciliate protozoa on methanogenesis in the rumen and hindgut were investigated in young calves during a 7-week period. Ten Holstein calves, aged 7 days, were divided in two groups (n = 5) and fed an increasing amount of a commercial milk replacer and small amounts of a calves starter. One group was inoculated wi...

The utilization of available energy of carbohydrates and fat for fat deposition was compared. The studies were performed in rats, pigs and humans with limited physical activity in respiration chambers by means of the nitrogen and carbon balance method. The following values for energy retention and efficiency of utilization of available energy were...

Title of the paper: Heat production of dairy cows in dependence on milk yield - a study On base of the recommendations of energy requirement of cows the heat production was calculated of cows with 4000–12000 kg EKM (energy corrected milk = 4 % milk fat) annual milk yield. Under the conditions of energy requirement related feed energy supply and the...

The objective of this study was to evaluate possible differences in the recovery of 13C between different breeds of cattle as an index of dynamics of carbon accretion. The experiments were performed with bulls of German Holstein (n=9, age: 8.4±0.8 months, 277±32 kg live weight (LW)) and Charolais (n=10, age: 8.1±0.4 months, 322±16 kg liveweight). A...

Aim of the investigations was to study different breeds of cattle fed restrictively by concerning meat performance and different morphological characteristics of the carcass. Experiments were carried out with 8 bulls each of the breeds Highland (Hi) and Black Pied Dairy Cattle (BP). During the 10 month experimental period, from the age of 13 to 23...

On base of the recommendations of energy requirement of cows the heat production was calculated of cows with 4000-12000 kg EKM (energy corrected milk = 4% milk fat) annual milk yield. Under the conditions of energy requirement related feed energy supply and thermoneutrality the heat production increased by 40% within the mentioned range of milk yie...

Dedicatedto Prof. Dr. habil. agr. H. Hagemeister on the occasion ofhis 65'h birthday Summary The objectives of this study were to describe ruminal fermentation, mean retention time (MRT) ofthe particulate digesta in the whole gastrointestinal tract and the apparent digestibility of nutrients in growing cattle of the genotypes Black-White Dairy Catt...

Dedicated to Prof. Dr. habil. agr. H. Hagemeister on the occasion ofhis 65,h blrthday Summary To estimate long-term effects of dietary protein quality on energy metabolism and thyroid hormone Status in growing pigs two experiments were carried out, each using 6 growing German Landrace barrows (40 to 90 kg body weight (BW)) per treatment group, whic...