Efficacy of propylene glycol on prevention and treatment of ketosis for dairy cows in lactation stage

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of propylene glycol (PG) on prevention and treatment of ketosis in dairy cows from 09/2018 to 03/2019. The study consisted of 2 experiments using a total of 126 multiparous dairy cows in a HF crossbred herd. Cows in both experiments were randomly assigned to treatments in a randomized complete block design. In Exp. 1, 96 cows without ketosis disease (BHBA < 1.4 mmol/L) were assigned to 2 groups (48 cows/group), including (1) untreated control group (no PG) and (2) treatment group (oral PG for 3 consecutive days after parturition). In Exp. 2, 30 ketotic cows (BHBA ≥ 1.4 mmol/L) were divided into 3 groups (10 cows/group), including (1) cows provided with glucose + vitamin B12 + dexamethasone (TT1), (2) cows treated with PG for 3 days (TT2), and (3) combination of TT1 and TT2 (TT3). The results of the Exp. 1 showed that the proportion of ketotic cows was lower (P < 0.01) in the PG-treated group (18.75%) than in the control group (47.92%). The PG treatment also reduced (P < 0.01) the blood ketone concentration of cows as compared with the control without PG use (0.89 vs. 1.22 mmol/L). In the Exp. 2, after treatment the reduction of blood ketone concentration was much greater (P < 0.01) in TT3 cows (1.97 mmol/L) than in TT2 cows (1.30 mmol/L) and TT1 cows (1.23 mmol/L). The percentage of cows recovered from ketosis was greatest in TT3 (90%), followed by TT2 (60%), and then TT1 (50%) (P > 0.05).