Predictors of diseases in cows in the fresh period

Abstract

Relevance. This work is devoted to the study of prognostic parameters for the development of labor pathology (retention of the placenta), a complication of which is often postpartum endometritis, as well as mastitis in Holstein cows, which will allow us to accurately and timely develop a preventive algorithm of actions.Methods. To solve research problems, animals with different pregnancy periods of the Holstein breed were selected and divided into two groups in the amount of 42 heads: group 1 — cows with a pregnancy period of 5–6 months; group 2 — cows with a pregnancy of 7–8 months. To identify predictors of diseases in the fresh period, the metabolic status of pregnant cows was studied on the basis of clinical and biochemical blood parameters using laboratory methods; the presence or absence of pathologies in these animals was taken into account in the first 10–14 days after calving.Results. Having studied the level of metabolic processes in selected pregnant cows (second and third trimesters), we were able to found that the concentrations of calcium (2.05±0.034 mmol/l), albumin fraction (12.7±2.31%), glucose (2.20±0.299 mmol/l), bilirubin (10.7± 2.94 mmol/l) in animals with a pregnancy of 5–6 months and the values of the protein index (0.17±0.014), phosphorus (2.75±0.215 mmol/l) at 7–8 months of pregnancy are factors predicting the pathology the labor and the postpartum period, namely retention of the placenta, diseases of the mammary gland and endometrium of an inflammatory nature. The most significant was the fact that a decrease in serum calcium and albumin by 18% and 53% in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy increases the likelihood of diseases in newly calved cows by 27–33%.