title: Peripheral and gastrointestinal immune systems of healthy cattle raised outdoors at pasture or indoors on a concentrate-based ration.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Despite an increasing preference of consumers for beef produced from more extensive pasture-based production systems and potential human health benefits from the consumption of such beef, data regarding the health status of animals raised on pasture are limited. The objective of this study was to characterise specific aspects of the bovine peripheral and the gastrointestinal muscosal immune systems of cattle raised on an outdoor pasture system in comparison to animals raised on a conventional intensive indoor concentrate-based system.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A number of in vitro functional tests of immune cells suggested subtle differences between the animals on the outdoor versus indoor production systems. There was a decrease in the number of neutrophils and monocytes engaged in phagocytosis in outdoor cattle (P < 0.01 and P < 0.05, respectively) in comparison to those indoors. Following mitogen stimulation, a lower level of interferon-gamma was produced in leukocytes from the outdoor animals (P < 0.05). There was evidence of a gastrointestinal nematode infection in the outdoor animals with elevated levels of serum pepsinogen (P < 0.001), a higher number of eosinophils (P < 0.05) and a higher level of interleukin-4 and stem cell factor mRNA expression (P < 0.05) in the outdoor animals in comparison to the indoor animals. Lower levels of copper and iodine were measured in the outdoor animals in comparison to indoor animals (P < 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Despite distinctly contrasting production systems, only subtle differences were identified in the peripheral immune parameters measured between cattle raised at pasture in comparison to animals raised on a conventional intensive indoor concentrate-based production system.
authors.affiliation: UCD School of Agriculture, Food Science and Veterinary Medicine, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland. lej.alexandre@gmail.com
authors.forename: Alexandre
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lejeune
authors.forename: Frank J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Monahan
authors.forename: Aidan P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Moloney
authors.forename: Bernadette
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Earley
authors.forename: Alistair D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Black
authors.forename: Deirdre P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Campion
authors.forename: Tanya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Englishby
authors.forename: Petrina
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Reilly
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: O'Doherty
authors.forename: Torres
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sweeney
mesh_terms: D000821:Animal Feed; D000822:Animal Husbandry; D000824:Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle / Q000254:growth & development / Q000276:immunology*; D004032:Diet / Q000662:veterinary*; D005260:Female; D041981:Gastrointestinal Tract / Q000276:immunology*; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000378:metabolism; D007958:Leukocyte Count / Q000662:veterinary*; D008903:Minerals / Q000097:blood; D020116:Pepsinogen A / Q000097:blood; D010587:Phagocytosis; D012621:Seasons
chemical_list: D008903:Minerals; D007371:Interferon-gamma; D020116:Pepsinogen A