Displacement of Abomasum and Its Performance on Clinical Serum Biochemistry in Dairy Cows in Taiwan

Abstract

Displacement of abomasum is now recognized as one of the most commonly encountered metabolic diseases in Taiwan. The purpose of this study was to estimate serum electrolyte and mineral concentrations in cows diagnosed with displacement of abomasum, as well as to evaluate the recovery rate of this disease after surgery. Fifty cows were diagnosed with left displacement of abomasum and 7 with right displacement of abomasum. These cows were 3.83±1.14 years old and experienced an average of 2.12±0.96 parturitions, and the percentages of the operations (right paralumbar omentopexy) performed on cows with first calving, and during subsequent 2nd and 3rd lactations were 28.1% (16/57), 40.4% (23/57), and 26.3% (15/57), respectively. There were 49 cows affected with displacement of abomasum in the first lactation month after calving. More than half of the surgeries (32 or 56.1%) was performed during the summer months (June, July, and August). Of the total 57 cows diagnosed with LDA or RDA, 45 (78.9%) showed signs of ketosis, displaying significantly lower concentrations of Ca^(2+), Mg^(2+), K^+, and Cl^- (P＜0.01), when compared with healthy cows from the same herds. The mean concentrations of P^(2-) and Na+ were not different for cases and controls (P＞0.05) in this study. We concluded that the right flank omentopexy is a well-accepted technique to treat displacement of abomasum, and hypocalcemia could increase the occurrence of this disease in early lactation.