Technical note: Developing a heat stress model in dairy cows using an electric heat blanket

Precisely studying the biological consequences of heat stress (HS) in agriculturally relevant animals typically requires expensive climate-controlled facilities, infrastructure inaccessible to most researchers. Thus, study objectives were to explore the efficacy of an electric heat blanket (EHB) as an alternative method for evaluating HS and to determine whether EHB-induced hyperthermia affects production parameters similar to natural HS. Lactating Holstein cows (n = 8; 133 ± 3 d in milk; 709 ± 31 kg; 2.6 ± 0.3 parity) were housed in individual box stalls and allowed to acclimate for 3 d. After acclimation, the trial consisted of 2 experimental periods (P). During P1 (3 d), cows were housed in thermoneutral conditions for collecting baseline data. During P2 (7 d), cows were fitted with an EHB. During the entire experiment cows were fed ad libitum, and dry matter intake (DMI) was recorded daily. Cows were milked twice daily (0600 and 1800 h), and milk samples were collected on d 2 and 3 of P1 and d 3 and 7 of P2. Rectal temperature, respiration rate, heart rate, and skin temperature were obtained twice daily (0600 and 1800 h) during both P1 and P2. Overall, there was an increase in rectal temperature and respiration rate at 0600 h (1.0°C and 25 breaths/min, respectively) and 1800 h (1.2°C and 29 breaths/min, respectively) during P2. The EHB decreased DMI and milk yield (25 and 21%, respectively) by the end of P2. During P2, milk protein tended to decrease (4.4%) compared with P1. In contrast, milk urea nitrogen increased (33%) during P2 relative to P1. No other differences were observed in milk composition. In summary, our results indicate that employing an EHB affects physiological and production parameters similarly to natural HS (i.e., increased rectal temperature and respiration rate, decreased DMI and milk yield); thus, the EHB is an effective and inexpensive research tool for evaluating the biological consequences of HS in lactating dairy cows.