Evaluation of production diseases
Generally, production diseases are acute states and respond dramatically to administration of a deficient nutrient or metabolite. The nutritional deficiencies on the other hand, are long term steady state conditions that require dietary supplementation of their correction.
Compton Metabolic Profile Test (CMPT) and the metabolic profiles for individual cows have been suggested for prediction, diagnosis and prevention of production diseases in dairy cows. CMPT is based on the principle that the nutritional status of the animal is reflected by certain variables in the blood. These variable fo r the dairy herd metabolic profile testing include non-esterifies fatty acids (NEFAS), serum â- hydroxyl butyric acid and blood glucose for reflecting energy balance; blood urea nitrogen and serum albumin for protein status; haemogram for sub-optimal energy and protein nutrition, and serum calcium, inorganic phosphorous, magnesium, sodium and potassium indicating mineral status. However, the interpretations of the metabolic profiling require considerable experience and one should follow the guiding principles of sampling for these tests.
Body Condition Score (BCS) is an important aspect of metabolic diseases of animals. It is an indirect method for determining nutritional status and is useful in evaluating health, milk production and reproduction in dairy animals. BCS is a subjective assessment for body reserves of metabolizable energy. For dairy cows, a five point BCS system is used in the USA and Canada while Australia and New Zealand use 8 and 10 point scales, respectively.