In dairy cattle, late gestation is a critical period for
fetal growth and physiological transition into the next
lactation. Environmental factors, such as temperature
and light, exert dramatic effects on the production,
health, and well-being of animals during this period
and after parturition. The aim of this review was to
introduce effects of heat stress during late gestation
on dairy cattle, and discuss the biological mechanisms
that underlie the observed production and health responses
in the dam and her fetus. Relative to cooled
cows, cows that are heat stressed during late gestation
have impaired mammary growth before parturition and
decreased milk production in the subsequent lactation.
In response to higher milk yield, cows cooled prepartum
undergo a series of homeorhetic adaptations in early
lactation to meet higher demand for milk synthesis
compared with heat-stressed cows, but no direct effect
of environmental heat stress on metabolism exists
during the dry period. Prepartum cooling improves
immune status of transition cows and evidence suggests
that altered prolactin signaling in immune cells
mediates the effects of heat stress on immune function.
Late-gestation heat stress compromises placental development,
which results in fetal hypoxia, malnutrition,
and eventually fetal growth retardation. Maternal heat
stress may also have carryover effects on the postnatal
growth of offspring, but direct evidence is still lacking.
Emerging evidence suggests that offspring from prepartum
heat-stressed cows have compromised passive
immunity and impaired cell-mediated immune function
compared with those from cooled cows.