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The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and associations of early postpartum health disorders with production, reproduction, and survivability in dairy cows in Alberta. Holstein cattle (N = 1096) from 11 commercial dairy farms in Alberta, Canada were enrolled. Cows were evaluated daily for clinical postpartum health disorders and a blood sample was collected once within 2 wk after calving to diagnose subclinical disorders. Overall, 61% of cows were diagnosed with at least 1 postpartum health disorder, with 25% of cows having multiple disorders. Of the cows with only 1 health disorder, 71% were classified as inflammatory and 29% as metabolic disorders. Cows with multiple disorders were at the greatest risk of reduced milk production, impaired fertility, and leaving the herd. Cows with an inflammatory disorder had reduced productive and reproductive performance, whereas cows with a metabolic disorder were at the greatest risk of mortality., (Copyright and/or publishing rights held by the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association.)

The objectives were to evaluate differences in serum concentration of metabolites, macro minerals and hepatic enzymes at pre and postpartum time-points in dairy cows diagnosed with clinical metritis, hypocalcaemia or ketosis postpartum. A total of 144 Holstein cows from 11 commercial dairy herds in Alberta, (Western Canada) were enrolled in this study. Cows with clinical metritis had lower serum concentrations of glutamate dehydrogenase (GLDH) at pre and postpartum and lower total Ca, albumin, urea, and cholesterol at postpartum when compared to control cows. Cows with hypocalcaemia had greater serum concentrations of Na, Cl, and calculated osmolarity (CalOsmo) at prepartum and lower concentration of total serum Ca, glucose, cholesterol, gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT), GLDH, total protein and albumin at postpartum. Prepartum serum concentrations of non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA), beta hydroxybutyrate (BHB), Cl, albumin/globulin ratio (A/G), Na, K and sum of Na and K were greater in ketotic cows when compared with control cows. Cows with ketosis had also greater postpartum serum concentrations of NEFA, BHB, GGT and aspartate transaminase (AST) when compared with control cows. Prepartum serum Na and Cl concentrations and CalOsmo were greater in cows diagnosed with hypocalcaemia or ketosis when compared with control cows. Furthermore, postpartum serum concentrations of total Ca, cholesterol, albumin and GLDH were significantly affected by hypocalcaemia or clinical metritis and concentrations of GGT by hypocalcaemia or ketosis. Finally, postpartum serum concentrations of haptoglobin increased in all disease groups when compared with control cows. These results suggest common metabolic features for clinical metritis, hypocalcaemia and ketosis in dairy cows in addition to the specific ones., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The objectives were to evaluate differences in circulating prepartum metabolites, minerals, cytokines and hormones based on postpartum disease category and determine critical circulating concentrations of prepartum analytes associated with postpartum disease in 229 cattle from 11 commercial dairies in Alberta, Canada. Blood was collected at 8.8 ± 2.1 d prepartum and analyzed for a wide array of analytes. Cattle were categorized as healthy (n = 76) or as having inflammatory (INF; n = 28), metabolic (MET; n = 34) or inflammatory and metabolic (INFMET; n = 91) postpartum diseases. The prepartum circulating concentrations of Cu were lesser (0.84 vs. 0.90 μg/mL; P = 0.02) and concentrations of Mo (19.1 vs. 16.5 ng/mL; P = 0.04) and NEFA (0.27 vs. 0.18 mmol/L; P = 0.01) were greater in INFMET cattle compared with healthy cattle. The critical threshold for Cu, Mo and NEFA prepartum concentration that predicted INFMET was ≤ 0.81 μg/mL (sensitivity 45.5% and specificity 74.3%), ≥ 9.91 ng/mL (sensitivity 70.0% and specificity 52.7%) and ≥ 0.19 mmol/L (sensitivity 62.2% and specificity 79.7%), respectively. Regardless of differences in the prepartum circulating concentrations of Cu, Mo and NEFA among healthy cattle and those with postpartum disease, the use of these analytes to predict the incidence of postpartum diseases was limited., (Crown Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of a cow-side device (FreeStyle Precision Neo™) to diagnose ketosis and hypoglycemia based on measures of blood β-hydroxybutyrate (BHBA) and glucose. Eleven commercial dairy farms were visited and blood samples were taken from Holstein cows between 2 and 14days in milk, yielding 441 samples for BHBA analysis and 308 samples for glucose analysis. Concentrations of BHBA and glucose were measured in two ways, 1) using the cow-side device with whole blood immediately after sampling and 2) serum samples analyzed with a standard laboratory assay (Animal Health Laboratory, University of Guelph, Canada). The accuracy of the device was determined by comparing the results to the laboratory method as well as the ability to diagnose ketosis (BHBA ≥1.2mmol/L) and hypoglycemia (glucose <2.5mmol/L). The concordance correlation coefficient (CCC), Bland-Altman plot and Kappa coefficient were calculated to evaluate agreement between the 2 methods using SAS (version 9.3). The CCC was 0.92 for BHBA and 0.56 for glucose measurements. The 95% confidence intervals of the Bland-Altman plot encompassed 97% and 95% of the mean difference between methods for BHBA and glucose measurements, respectively. The Kappa coefficients were 0.78 for BHBA and 0.23 for glucose measurements. These results indicate that the cow-side device is accurate for rapid measurement of blood BHBA and diagnosis of ketosis on farms but is not accurate for measurement of blood glucose concentrations and diagnosis of hypoglycemia., (Crown Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)