Abstract

Administration of bovine growth hormone (GH) has been shown to increase milk production in dairy cows by coordinating the metabolism of various organs and tissues, so that nutrients are repartitioned to the mammary gland to support increased requirements for milk synthesis (Keys et al., 1991). Some of the targets for GH are adipose tissue (Gallo et al., 1990), skeletal muscle, liver (Bush et al., 2003) and the mammary gland (Hayashi et al., 2009). In muscle GH decreases glucose uptake and increases amino acid catabolism efficiency (Vallimont et al., 2001), whilst the liver responds by increasing the rate of basal gluconeogenesis through lypolysis of adipose reserves (Gallo et al., 1990).

Q, Sciascia, D Pacheco, and SA McCoard

Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production, Volume 70, Palmerston North, 62-64, 2010