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Giannuzzi D, Mota LFM, Pegolo S, Tagliapietra F, Schiavon S, Gallo L, Marsan PA, Trevisi E, Cecchinato A. Prediction of detailed blood metabolic profile using milk infrared spectra and machine learning methods in dairy cattle. J Dairy Sci 2023; 106:3321-3344. [PMID: 37028959 DOI: 10.3168/jds.2022-22454] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2022] [Accepted: 12/14/2022] [Indexed: 04/09/2023]
Abstract
The adoption of preventive management decisions is crucial to dealing with metabolic impairments in dairy cattle. Various serum metabolites are known to be useful indicators of the health status of cows. In this study, we used milk Fourier-transform mid-infrared (FTIR) spectra and various machine learning (ML) algorithms to develop prediction equations for a panel of 29 blood metabolites, including those related to energy metabolism, liver function/hepatic damage, oxidative stress, inflammation/innate immunity, and minerals. For most traits, the data set comprised observations from 1,204 Holstein-Friesian dairy cows belonging to 5 herds. An exception was represented by β-hydroxybutyrate prediction, which contained observations from 2,701 multibreed cows pertaining to 33 herds. The best predictive model was developed using an automatic ML algorithm that tested various methods, including elastic net, distributed random forest, gradient boosting machine, artificial neural network, and stacking ensemble. These ML predictions were compared with partial least squares regression, the most commonly used method for FTIR prediction of blood traits. Performance of each model was evaluated using 2 cross-validation (CV) scenarios: 5-fold random (CVr) and herd-out (CVh). We also tested the best model's ability to classify values precisely in the 2 extreme tails, namely, the 25th (Q25) and 75th (Q75) percentiles (true-positive prediction scenario). Compared with partial least squares regression, ML algorithms achieved more accurate performance. Specifically, elastic net increased the R2 value from 5% to 75% for CVr and 2% to 139% for CVh, whereas the stacking ensemble increased the R2 value from 4% to 70% for CVr and 4% to 150% for CVh. Considering the best model, with the CVr scenario, good prediction accuracies were obtained for glucose (R2 = 0.81), urea (R2 = 0.73), albumin (R2 = 0.75), total reactive oxygen metabolites (R2 = 0.79), total thiol groups (R2 = 0.76), ceruloplasmin (R2 = 0.74), total proteins (R2 = 0.81), globulins (R2 = 0.87), and Na (R2 = 0.72). Good prediction accuracy in classifying extreme values was achieved for glucose (Q25 = 70.8%, Q75 = 69.9%), albumin (Q25 = 72.3%), total reactive oxygen metabolites (Q25 = 75.1%, Q75 = 74%), thiol groups (Q75 = 70.4%), total proteins (Q25 = 72.4%, Q75 = 77.2.%), globulins (Q25 = 74.8%, Q75 = 81.5%), and haptoglobin (Q75 = 74.4%). In conclusion, our study shows that FTIR spectra can be used to predict blood metabolites with relatively good accuracy, depending on trait, and are a promising tool for large-scale monitoring.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diana Giannuzzi
- Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and Environment (DAFNAE), University of Padova, 35020, Legnaro (PD), Italy.
| | - Lucio Flavio Macedo Mota
- Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and Environment (DAFNAE), University of Padova, 35020, Legnaro (PD), Italy
| | - Sara Pegolo
- Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and Environment (DAFNAE), University of Padova, 35020, Legnaro (PD), Italy
| | - Franco Tagliapietra
- Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and Environment (DAFNAE), University of Padova, 35020, Legnaro (PD), Italy
| | - Stefano Schiavon
- Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and Environment (DAFNAE), University of Padova, 35020, Legnaro (PD), Italy
| | - Luigi Gallo
- Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and Environment (DAFNAE), University of Padova, 35020, Legnaro (PD), Italy
| | - Paolo Ajmone Marsan
- Department of Animal Science, Food and Nutrition (DIANA) and the Romeo and Enrica Invernizzi Research Center for Sustainable Dairy Production (CREI), Faculty of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, 29122, Piacenza, Italy; Nutrigenomics and Proteomics Research Center, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, 29122, Piacenza, Italy
| | - Erminio Trevisi
- Department of Animal Science, Food and Nutrition (DIANA) and the Romeo and Enrica Invernizzi Research Center for Sustainable Dairy Production (CREI), Faculty of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, 29122, Piacenza, Italy
| | - Alessio Cecchinato
- Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and Environment (DAFNAE), University of Padova, 35020, Legnaro (PD), Italy
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