Manipulation of thyroid hormones in ruminants - a tool to understand their physiological role and identify their potential for increasing production efficiency

Abstract

Manipulations of thyroid hormone secretion and function can be used to cure thyroidal deficiencies or overactivity and as a tool to investigate their physiological roles and identify potential protocols for enhancing animal performance. An essential approach to the investigation of thyroid hormone action involves the induction of hypothyroidal states. Methods of inducing hypothyroidal states in ruminants include thyroidectomy and treatment with thionamides. There are few data concerning the induction of an optimal degree of hypothyroidism for the study of thyroid function in ruminants, unlike the situation in rodents. The effects of hypothyroidism on the physiology of ruminants, and the relative merits of thyroidectomy or of treatment with thionamides to manipulate thyroid hormone profiles in them, are reviewed and discussed. Thyroidectomy in ruminants induces an acute, irreversible, hypothyroidal state. It also has indirect, predominantly adverse, effects on many physiological processes and impairs health. Thus, thyroidectomised (THX) animals cannot be sustained for long-term studies without thyroid hormone replacement. Antithyroid drugs of the thionamide class, on the other hand, have been used with success to induce varying degrees of hypothyroidism, predominantly less severe than those induced by thyroidectomy. The changes induced by drugs are reversible upon withdrawal of treatment. However, treatment may require daily administration of the drug for several weeks before stable plasma concentrations of thyroid hormone are achieved. Furthermore, at high doses, these drugs can have toxic side effects. It is concluded that the treatment regime of choice will depend on the objectives of the individual study. Knowledge of the activities of thyroid hormone metabolising, deiodinase enzymes in the target tissues is also required if the actions of some of these drugs, their physiological roles in modulation of the thyroid hormones, and, crucially, their potential effects on animal health and production are to be properly understood and exploited.