Pre-weaning heat stress alters liver transcriptome in dairy calves [RNA-Seq]

The impact of postnatal heat stress exposure in neonatal calves is not well-understood, and adequate heat abatement methods during the pre-weaning phase are lacking. This study aimed to investigate the impact of pre-weaning heat stress on liver gene expression profiles. Holstein dairy calves were group housed and exposed to postnatal heat stress (HS; n = 6) or postnatal cooling (CL; n = 6) from birth to weaning. Liver tissue samples were harvested via biopsy at 42 days of age for RNA Sequencing (RNA-seq).