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Ketosis monitoring in Spain using testday samples
Guadagnini, M.; Alcantara, G...
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Objectives: Ketosis (KET) is one of the most impactful diseases in dairy farming and it represents a good indicator of a poor adaptation to high energy demand during the transition period (Duffield T., 2009). β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) and KET can be monitored in milk (Carrier J., et al., 2004) using testday milk samples (de Roos A. et al., 2007). The main goal of this project was to map KET prevalence across Spain and identify risk factors and consequences.
Materials and Methods: Data from 4 DHI associations across Spain have been joined into one dataset: Cantabria (CANT), Castilla y Leon (CYL), Cataluña (CAT) and Galicia (GAL). The dataset includes 337,759 first tests occurring during 2018 and 2019. Since BHB monitoring best performs in cows ≤25 days in milk (DIM) (Renaud D. L. et al., 2019), samples outside the interval of 5-25 DIM were excluded, so that the final dataset contains 200,593 first tests belonging to 2242 farms. A BHB 0.1 mmol/liter cut-point has been choosen for KET (Viña C. et al., 2017). Variables used to investigate KET risk factors were: fresh season, parity, milk production and somatic cell count (SCC) at first test. First calving age in categories (<24mo; 24-27mo;>27mo), calf outcome (Male, Female, Twins) were also available except for GAL. Mean number of cows controlled per farm and test was divided into quantiles as a proxy of farm size. Calving season effects were evaluated via 2 classes: Atlantic climate regions (GAL and CANT) and the rest of Spain (CYL and CAT). Descriptive statistics were used to describe current KET prevalence across Spain. Multivariate models were built to evaluate specific risk factors for KET and to assess its relationships with milk production and udder health. Statistically significant results were identified us- ing a p<0.05.
Results: 32% of cows were lact=1, 27% lact=2 and 40% lact≥3. 31% of lact=1 calved with <24mo, 41% between 24- 27mo and 27% >27mo. Twinning rate was 3%. Overall KET prevalence was 21%: 15% for lact=1, 19% for lact=2 and 27% for lact≥3. Possibly, due to on demand KET monitoring, prevalence for CANT was significantly lower than other regions with 15.25% vs. 21.23% for GAL, 21.58% for CAT and 22.09% in CYL. Running the analysis by farm, 37.1% (n=763) of all farms with at least 20 tests each (n=2055) had a Ketosis prevalence >25%; this percentage varied by region with CANT 17.1%, CYL 40.3%, CAT 38.0% and GAL 39.7%. Mean number of cows controlled per farm and test had a significant impact on KET prevalence: in the Atlantic area the 1st quartile (<5 cows) had a KET prevalence of 27.09%, 2nd quartile (5-7 cows) 20.47%, 3rd quartile (7-11 cows) 17.88% and 4th quartile (>11 cows) 16.62%. In the rest of Spain KET prevalence was: for 1st quartile (<12 cows) 25.7%, 2nd quartile (12-24 cows) 22.13%, 3rd quartile (24-51 cows) 19.66% and 4th quartile (>51 cows) 19.96%. In the Atlantic area, Winter and Spring had the highest KET prevalence, conversely in the rest of Spain Summer and Fall had the highest KET prevalence. Statistically significant differences for KET risk were found across parities (3+ vs. 2, Relative Risk (RR)=1.54 95%CI=1.50-1.58; 3+ vs. 1, RR=2.03 95%CI=1.97-2.08; 2 vs 1, RR=1.31 95%CI=1.27-1.35) and across age at first calving for lact=1 (>27mo vs. <24mo, RR=2.15 95%CI=1.98-2.33; >27mo vs. 24-27mo, RR=1.48 95%CI=1.28-1.59; 24-27mo vs. <24mo, RR=1.44 95%CI=1.34-1.56). Cows with a singleton male had slightly more risk of having KET than cows calving singleton female (M vs F RR=1.05 95%CI=1.01-1.10). Ketotic cows were more prone to have, at the same time, subclinical mastitis (>200 000 cell/ml, Ruegg P. 2017) (KET Yes vs No RR=1.69 95%CI=1.63-1.75). Finally, accounting for parity, farmcode, DIM 1st test, month and year fresh, Ketotic cows yielded 1.29 kg less milk at first test compared to cows without KET (p<0.0001). As it was not possible to account for previous lactation milk production, this milk loss might represents an underestimate of the true milk loss attributable to KET.
Conclusions: KET prevalence and proportion of high risk herds is higher than perceived by much of the dairy industry. Elevated BHB was associated with lower milk production at first test and higher prevalence of subclinical mastitis. The idenfied risk factors can help design better prevention strategies.
Keywords: Ketosis, testday, Spain, dairy.
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Affiliation of the authors at the time of publication
Elanco Animal Health, Sesto Fiorentino (FI), Italy;
Federación Frisona Castilla y León (FEFRICALE), Leon, Spain;
Federación Frisona de Cataluña (FEFRIC), Vic, Spain;
Asociación Frisona Cantabria (AFCA), Torrelavega, Spain;
Asociación de Control lechero de Lugo, Lugo, Spain;
Elanco Animal Health, Alcobendas, Spain.
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