During the XXVI International Scientific Conference in Polanica-Zdrój, prof. Tadeusz Stefaniak and prof. Paulina Jawor from UP in Wrocław explained how to use the results of laboratory tests on cows to assess the health of the herd.
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Healthy cow – healthy milk. Effective herd health management
Why is it worth conducting laboratory monitoring of cattle herds?
The four reasons for conducting laboratory monitoring of dairy cattle herds include:
- problems with noticing early symptoms of the disease;
- difficult and often impossible to quickly detect sick animals in a group housing system;
- reducing the number of sick animals, and therefore the associated costs, thanks to earlier detection of problems;
- identification of deviations from the norm when there are no clinical symptoms of pathology yet.
Subclinical metabolic diseases are much more financially severe
The speakers emphasized that subclinical metabolic disorders affecting a significant portion of cows in a herd are much more financially severe than more spectacular problems that are clinically recognizable but affect only individual animals.
– For example, a situation in which nutritional errors result in a reduction in the average daily productivity of a herd of 200 cows by only 1 liter based on the classic 305 days of lactation, at a milk price of PLN 1.8/liter, will result in a lack of income of PLN 109,800. In practice, such losses can be much more severe, and the earlier they are diagnosed and their causes removed, the less losses the breeder will suffer, the speakers noted.
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What tests are included in the laboratory monitoring of cattle herds?
They indicated that laboratory tests are useful for identifying problems and properly managing various health aspects in dairy herds, as they constitute an important complement to other methods of monitoring herd health.
The recommended tests as part of such monitoring included: for a herd that does not show any major problems, repeating the determination of a set of parameters characterizing metabolic changes, as well as mineral metabolism (total calcium, ionized calcium, magnesium and inorganic phosphorus) and acid-base balance (blood pH , bicarbonate, potassium and sodium concentrations).
What are the indications for laboratory monitoring of the herd?
According to the speakers, there are two circumstances in which it is worth performing laboratory monitoring of the herd:
- the herd "appears" problem-free and the goal is to make sure there is no deviation from the norm that could lead to future metabolic disorders or disease,
- the herd has a problem that needs to be identified. In this case, the focus must be on cows at risk, not already sick cows, because the disease and treatment fundamentally change diagnostic parameters. Therefore, if the problem occurs shortly after calving, in addition to cows from the fresh group, cows in the late dry period should be examined.
Not just research
Monitoring herd health requires a systematic analysis of available results in conjunction with animal housing and feeding conditions. As the speakers emphasized, during a farm visit, access to water and feed table, TMR structure, cow condition and feces structure should also be checked.
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