Retrospective study of incidence of ketosis in postpartum dairy cows

Introduction

Ketosis is the most frequently encountered metabolic disorder in high-yielding dairy cows during the first 6-8 weeks of lactation (Guliński, 2021) [7] . It is a major metabolic disorder characterized by elevated ketone bodies in blood, urine and milk (Serrenho, 2022) [6] . Oetzel (2007) [8] categorized ketosis into 2 types. Type I ketosis was spontaneous or underfeeding ketosis was the classic form of ketosis that occurred in cows that were 3 to 6 weeks postcalving when cows were at their peak production and type II Ketosis included any cows that mobilize body fat prior to or at calving and animals were in negative energy balance which ended up in fatty liver. The two main metabolic disorders of dairy cows that can harm the liver and endanger the health of dairy cows are fatty liver and ketosis (Cao et al., 2017) [5] . Hence, the diagnosis of ketosis should be made early to prevent the milk production loss.

Materials and Methods

Incidences of ketosis in post-partum dairy cows were evaluated for a period of one year between January 2025 to December 2025. A total number of 152 cattle were brought to the Large Animal Medicine Unit, Veterinary Clinical Complex, Veterinary College and Research Institute, Namakkal. The recently calved cows showing the clinical signs of dull, reduced feed intake and milk yield, selective feeding, pica, reluctant to move, shaky gait were selected for the study. Incidence of ketosis was analysed based on the factors such as age, breed, stage of lactation, milk production. A detailed clinical examination, ketone body evaluation was done to assess the severity of ketosis.

Results and Discussion

The incidence of various post-partum disorders presented to LAC-OP-M unit of VCC, VCRI, Namakkal was given in the Figure 1. During the study period the incidence of post-partum disorders in dairy cows mastitis was 22.88%, downer cow syndrome was 21.05%, milk fever was 18.42%, traumatic pericarditis was 11.84%, metritis was 6.5% and hypokalemia was 5.2%. Among them the incidence of ketosis was 7.8%. The highest incidence of ketosis was noticed in the recently calved dairy cows, with 41.66% in 3 rd calving followed by 25% in cows at 2 nd calving, 16.66% in 4 th calving and 8.33% in 1 st and 5 th calving (Fig. 3). These findings agreed with Mir and Malik (2002).

In breed wise incidence of ketosis in post-partum dairy cows, 58.33% in Cross Bred Jersey cows followed by 41.66% in Holstein Friesian cows (Fig. 2). The breed wise incidence of this study agreed with the findings of Lei et al. (2021) [1] . The highest incidence of ketosis noticed in dairy cows were 33.33% in 3-4 th week of lactation followed by 25% in 6-7 th week, 16.66% in 1-2 nd week and 5-6 th week of lactation (Fig. 4). The stage of lactation in this study was similar to the findings of Biswal et al., (2016) [4] . In this present study the body condition of the ketosis cows were emaciated in 75% of cows (Fig. 5). According to Barletta et al., (2017) [2] decrease in BCS during early lactation is common because of the mobilization of body reserves to meet the demands of milk production. Bewley et al., (2008) [3] stated that most practical method for assessing changes in energy reserves in dairy cattle is body condition scoring and the ketosis cows had body condition score. Most studies indicated the incidence of ketosis in cows had higher prepartum body condition.

Conclusion

Among the post-partum disorders the incidence of ketosis was 7.8%. The highest incidence of ketosis was noticed in the recently calved dairy cows with 41.66% in 3 rd calving. Higher incidence of ketosis (58.33%) was recorded in Cross Bred Jersey cows followed by Holstein Friesian cows (41.66%). Third to fourth week of lactation cows had more incidence of ketosis (33.33%). The body conditions of the ketosis cows were emaciated.

Acknowledgement

AcknowledgementsThe authors are thankful to the Dean, Veterinary College and Research Institute, Namakkal for providing required facilities to carry out this study.

References

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