ArticleScientific reports2021
Telomere attrition rates are associated with weather conditions and predict productive lifespan in dairy cattle.
Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pervasive sublethal impacts of heat exposure revealed by telomere dynamics.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2026Article
- Telomere Length Is Determined by Intrinsic Factors and Is Shortened During Drought Years inEcology and evolution · 2026Article
- Measuring minds: Understanding the mental states of dairy cattle in different management conditions.JDS communications · 2025Article
- Growth resilience to weather variation in commercial free-ranging chickens in Ethiopia.BMC genomics · 2025Article
- Article
- Shortening of the telomere length during the transition period of dairy cows in relation to biological stress.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Why and when should organisms elongate their telomeres? Elaborations on the 'excess resources elongation' and 'last resort elongation' hypotheses.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Telomere Dynamics in Livestock.Biology · 2023Review
- Article
- Prenatal environment impacts telomere length in newborn dairy heifers.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Characterization of telomere length in Agerolese cattle breed, correlating blood and milk samples.Animal genetics · 2022Article
- Large mammal telomere length variation across ecoregions.BMC ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Causes and consequences of variation in early-life telomere length in a bird metapopulation.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Comparison of the transcriptome in circulating leukocytes in early lactation between primiparous and multiparous cows provides evidence for age-related changes.BMC genomics · 2021Article
- Heritable variation in telomere length predicts mortality in Soay sheep.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Telomere length is predictive of adult health and survival across vertebrate species. However, we currently do not know whether such associations result from among-individual differences in telomere length determined genetically or by early-life environmental conditions, or from differences in the rate of telomere attrition over the course of life that might be affected by environmental conditions. Here, we measured relative leukocyte telomere length (RLTL) multiple times across the entire lifespan of dairy cattle in a research population that is closely monitored for health and milk production and where individuals are predominantly culled in response to health issues. Animals varied in their change in RLTL between subsequent measurements and RLTL shortened more during early life and following hotter summers which are known to cause heat stress in dairy cows. The average amount of telomere attrition calculated over multiple repeat samples of individuals predicted a shorter productive lifespan, suggesting a link between telomere loss and health. TL attrition was a better predictor of when an animal was culled than their average TL or the previously for this population reported significant TL at the age of 1 year. Our present results support the hypothesis that TL is a flexible trait that is affected by environmental factors and that telomere attrition is linked to animal health and survival traits. Change in telomere length may represent a useful biomarker in animal welfare studies.
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Registered trials
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