Incidence and prevalence of clinical and subclinical ketosis in grazing dairy cattle in the Cundiboyacencian Andean plateau, Colombia

Abstract

Ketosis is a common metabolic disorder in dairy cattle farms that causeseconomic losses through reduced milk yield, reproductive performance andincreased risk of early culling. In the Cundiboyacencian Andean plateau, theincidence of the condition is unknown. The main objective of the study wasto determine the incidence and the prevalence of subclinical (SCK) and clinicalketosis (CK) in grazing dairy cows in Colombia within the first six weeks oflactation. A purposive sample of 150 lactating dairy cows from 10 commercialdairy farms in the Cundi-Boyacencian Andean plateau were tested weeklyusing point of care device (POCD) for β-hydroxybutyrate (βHB) during the first6 weeks of lactation. Parity, days in milk (DIM), body condition score (BCS),prepartum and dry period length (DP), breed, milk yield (MY) and peripartumdiseases were recorded for each cow and management practices were determinedusing a survey for each farm. Weekly incidence, cumulative incidenceand prevalence were calculated. The cumulative incidence of SCK was25.33% and 3.33% for CK. The peak incidence was 8% at week 4 postpartumfor SCK and 2.6% at week 2 for CK. The overall prevalence of SCK was 42.6%and CK prevalence was 6%. The peak prevalence of SCK and CK was 10.6%at week 4 and 2.6% at week 2 postpartum, respectively. The most frequentperiparturient diseases were retained placenta and metritis. SCK was a highincident disease within the first 6 weeks of lactation, with a peak incidenceat week 4 postpartum in multiparous cows.