Metabolic Stress in the Transition Period of Dairy Cows: Focusing on the Prepartum Period

Simple Summary Complex pathways of metabolic adaptation occur in high-yielding dairy cows around calving. These adaptations require the redirection of nutrients to support the last stages of fetal growth and the commencement of lactation. Failure to adapt to these changes may result in the development of clinical disease in the postpartum period. Therefore, most existing literature is focused on studying the metabolic changes in the postpartum period. However, some of the risk factors associated with postpartum clinical disease can already be found in the prepartum period. This review describes adaptive changes occurring in prepartum high-yielding dairy cows, from drying off (40 to 60 days before parturition) until calving. All modern, high-yielding dairy cows experience a certain degree of reduced insulin sensitivity, negative energy balance, and systemic inflammation during the transition period. Maladaptation to these changes may result in excessive fat mobilization, dysregulation of inflammation, immunosuppression, and, ultimately, metabolic or infectious disease in the postpartum period. Up to half of the clinical diseases in the lifespan of high-yielding dairy cows occur within 3 weeks of calving. Thus, the vast majority of prospective studies on transition dairy cows are focused on the postpartum period. However, predisposition to clinical disease and key (patho)physiological events such as a spontaneous reduction in feed intake, insulin resistance, fat mobilization, and systemic inflammation already occur in the prepartum period. This review focuses on metabolic, adaptive events occurring from drying off until calving in high-yielding cows and discusses determinants that may trigger (mal)adaptation to these events in the late prepartum period.