Indian Journal Of Natural Sciences www.tnsroindia.org. © IJONS Vol.7 / Issue 38 / October 2016 International Bimonthly ISSN: 0976 – 0997 11691 Transition Period and its Successful Management in Dairy Cows P.Ravi Kanth Reddy 1 *, Jakkula Raju 2 , A. Nagarjuna Redy 3 , P.Pandu Ranga Reddy 4 and Iqbal Hyder 5 1 Dept. of Animal Nutrition, NTR CVSc, Gannavaram, A.P.India. 2 Dept. of Animal Nutrition, PVNR Telangana state university for veterinary, Hyderabad, Telangana. 3 Dept. of LPM, NTRCVSc, Gannavaram, India. 4 Scientist and Head, Livestock Research Station, Mahanandi, India. 5 Dept. of Veterinary Physiology, NTR CVSc, Gannavaram, A.P.India. Received: 8 July 2016 Revised: 14 Aug 2016 Accepted: 27 Sep 2016 Address for correspondence P. Ravi Kanth Reddy Ph.D Scholar, Dept. of Animal Nutrition, NTR CVSc, Gannavaram, A.P.,India. Email: ravi.nutrition001@gmail.com This is an Open Access Journal /article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. All rights reserved. Cows that fail to transition successfully into lactation are vulnerable to a host number of problems which occur just after the calving. Further consequences in the early lactation period include, lowered milk production, Immunodepression and compromised reproductive performance. Dry matter intake (DMI) starts to decrease a few weeks before parturition with the lowest level occurring at calving. During the dry period, energy and protein requirements are lower, as there are no needs by the udder for milk production. Generally, dairy cows require around two times more energy for milk production than maintenance with a progress in the lactation period. Cattle have the ability to compensate for deficits of food energy through the mobilization of adipose reserves.Most of the fat soluble antioxidant vitamins such as retinol, α-tocoferol and β-carotene decrease at the time of parturition are reported to be associated with several health problems. The optimal body condition score for a dry cow is 3.0-3.25 and the cows that were conditioned at BCS-3 had higher feed intake coupled with peak milk yield. Lymphocytes play an important role in the mammary gland defense through secretion of lymphokines and antibodies, which facilitate the destruction of microorganisms. Dry cow therapy is the treatment of cows at the end of lactation with a long acting antibiotic preparation with or without a teat sealant. Keywords : Dry matter intake, α-tocoferol, β-carotene, Dry cow therapy, antioxidant. REVIEW ARTICLE ABSTRACT