Milk β-hydroxybutyrate metrics and its consequences for surveillance of hyperketonaemia on commercial dairy farms

Elise De Jong; Angelique Rijpert-Duvivier; Hendrik Veldman; Wilma Steeneveld; Ruurd Jorritsma

doi:10.3389/fvets.2023.1272162

Milk β-hydroxybutyrate metrics and its consequences for surveillance of hyperketonaemia on commercial dairy farms

Front Vet Sci. 2023 Nov 8:10:1272162. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2023.1272162. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Elise De Jong¹, Angelique Rijpert-Duvivier², Hendrik Veldman³, Wilma Steeneveld⁴, Ruurd Jorritsma⁴

Affiliations

¹ Northern Country Animal Care, Cobram, VIC, Australia.
² Elanco Benelux, Utrecht, Netherlands.
³ Delaval Benelux, Steenwijk, Netherlands.
⁴ Department of Population Health Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands.

Abstract

Dairy cows that are unable to adapt to a change in their metabolic status are at risk for hyperketonaemia (HK). Reported HK herd level prevalences range a lot and we hypothesized that this is partly due to differences in used tests and monitoring protocols. Insights in milk β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) metrics can potentially explain why the reported incidences or prevalences vary between test strategies. Automated collection and repeated analyses of individual milk samples with the DeLaval Herd Navigator^™ (HN) provides real-time data on milk BHB concentrations. We aimed to use that information to gain insight in BHB metrics measured in milk from 3 to 60 days in milk (DIM). Using different cut-offs (0.08, 0.10 and 0.15 mmol/L), 5 BHB metrics were determined. Furthermore, the impact of 4 arbitrary test protocols on the detected incidence of HK was assessed. We used HN data of 3,133 cows from 35 herds. The cumulative incidence of HK between 3 and 60 DIM varied between 30.5 and 76.7% for different cut-off values. We found a higher HK incidence for higher parity cows. The first elevated BHB concentrations were roughly found between one and two weeks after calving. For higher parity cows the maximum BHB concentrations were higher, the onset of HK was earlier after calving, and the number of episodes of HK was higher. It appeared that the sensitivity of a HK test protocol can be increased by increasing the testing frequency from once to twice a week. Also extending the number of days of the test window from 4-14 to 4-21 days enhances the chance to find cows experiencing HK. In conclusion, HN data provided useful insights in milk BHB metrics. The chosen cut-off value had a large effect on the reported metrics which explains why earlier reported incidences or prevalences vary such a lot. Differences in test period and sample selection also had a large impact on the observed HK incidence. We suggest to take this in consideration while evaluating whether HK is an issue on farm level and use a uniform protocol for benchmarking of HK between farms.

Keywords: dairy cows; hyperketonaemia; ketosis; monitoring; testing.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Delaval Benelux and Elanco Benelux covered the Article Processing Costs and reimbursed travel costs of EJ. We received no other funding.