Association between blood β-hydroxybutyrate at 7 days postpartum and milk yield, disease occurrence and fertility in grazing dairy cattle with seasonal calving: a case study
Pedro Melendez
A E F , Kaitlin McDaniel A , Carlos Chacon B , Scott Poock A , Julian Bartolome C and Pablo Pinedo D
A Department of Veterinary Medicine & Surgery, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA.
B Fundo San Pedro, Agricola Pozo Brujo, Lago Ranco, Chile.
C College of Veterinary Medicine, National University of La Pampa, General Pico, Argentina.
D Department of Animal Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80521, USA.
E Current address: College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
F Corresponding author. Email: pedro.melendez@uga.edu
Animal Production Science 60(14) 1737-1744 https://doi.org/10.1071/AN19414
Submitted: 25 July 2019 Accepted: 11 February 2020 Published: 28 April 2020
Abstract
Context: Ketosis in grazing cattle has been sparsely studied. A large commercial grazing dairy in southern Chile, representative of a significant proportion of the systems in the country, was used in this case study.
Aims: The study had three objectives: (i) to establish a cut-off for β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) concentration for subclinical ketosis (SCK), and use this to measure the proportion of cows with SCK at 7 days postpartum in spring- and autumn-calving cows; (ii) to describe the relationship of SCK and other periparturient diseases and fertility; and (iii) to compare milk yield of healthy cows and those affected by SCK in a dairy herd with autumn and spring parturitions under grazing conditions in southern Chile.
Methods: During 2016, 234 cows with autumn parturitions and 632 cows with spring parturitions (n = 866) were assessed for blood BHB at 7 days postpartum. A receiver operating characteristic analysis for a BHB cut-off value was completed. Models were developed for disease occurrence, culling risk, conception risk and pregnancy rate, considering SCK as the main explanatory variable.
Key results: In total, 810 cows were used for the final analysis. The frequency of cows with SCK, based on the cut-off value obtained (BHB ≥1.1 mmol/L), was 22.2% at 7 days postpartum. The risk of SCK was higher (P < 0.0001) in cows calving in spring (27.0%) than in autumn (10.3%), and in multiparous (24.6%) than primiparous cows (15.1%). The seasonal difference in proportion of cows with SCK was parity-dependent, because the frequency of SCK in multiparous cows was higher (P < 0.0005) in spring (32.0%) than autumn (10.1%), whereas SCK in primiparous cows showed no significant (P = 0.41) difference between spring (15.4%) and autumn (12.5%). Milk production up to 100 days-in-milk was greater (P = 0.002) in cows with SCK (3394 kg) than without SCK (3015 kg). Disease occurrence was higher (P < 0.0001) in cows with SCK and in multiparous cows (P < 0.0001). There was no difference in conception risk at first service (P = 0.62) or in overall pregnancy rate (P = 0.90) between cows with and without SCK.
Conclusions: Multiparous cows calving in spring had the highest risk of SCK (BHB ≥1.1 mmol/L). SCK was associated with higher milk yield and greater occurrence of other diseases, but not with reproductive performance.
Implications: Grazing herds have challenges with SCK that may require different management strategies depending on the calving season and the parity of the animals.
Additional keywords: bovine, health, ketones, lactation, reproduction.
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