Kazuyuki Suzuki

In post-partum dairy cows, a marked imbalance arises between calcium inflow into the circulation via intestinal absorption and bone resorption and Ca outflow into colostrum, resulting in a physiolo...

The present study investigated whether behavioral changes predict the onset of left displaced abomasum (LDA) using a small, multi-sensor device attached to a cow collar that records data in real time over a 24 hr period. Behavioral data were collected from 17 LDA cows that had undergone surgery and 23 healthy dairy cows. The total rumination time over 10 days before and after LDA surgery in cows, was significantly shorter from 8 days before to 3 days after surgery, peaking at 216.4 ± 96.8 min on day before surgery than that in the control group (group: P<0.001). The total rumination time of LDA cows was significantly shorter than that of the control group at each time point (interaction effect: P<0.001). The diagnostic ability to predict the onset of LDA based on the cutoff value (≤360 min) of total rumination time 6 days before LDA surgery calculated using the Yohden index showed a significantly high AUC of 0.887 (P<0.0001) with high sensitivity (84.6%) and specificity (88.9%). In other words, it was suggested that the onset of LDA can be predicted by total rumination time from 6 days before surgery. An Animal Health Monitoring System (AHMS) not only warns of the onset of cattle diseases, such as LDA, several days in advance, but may also predict the onset of diseases up to 6 days in advance based on shortened the total rumination times, thereby contributing to the efficiency of work for farmers and veterinarians.

The objectives of this study were (1) to confirm the expression of diamine oxidase (DAO) in the intestines of healthy calves immune-histologically and to clarify whether the expression of DAO in the intestines of calves with diarrhea differs from that of healthy animals, and (2) to clarify the relationship between DAO and intestinal inflammation using haptoglobin (HPT), a biomarker commonly used to evaluate inflammation. The abomasum, duodenum, jejunum and ileum, cecum, colon, and rectum of each animal were sampled at necropsy for immunohistochemical staining targeting DAO. DAO was diffusely expressed in all areas from the abomasum to the rectum in healthy calves, whereas its expression was reduced in calves with diarrhea. Four Japanese black calves with mild dehydration caused by diarrhea were included in the study to investigate the potential relationship between DAO and HPT. DAO activity was extremely low in diarrhea cases, whereas HPT levels were high. When an oral rehydration solution (ORS) was administered to these cases for three consecutive days, HPT significantly decreased logarithmically and fecal properties returned to normal on the fourth day of treatment. In contrast, DAO activities were significantly increased by oral rehydration therapy (ORT), and DAO activities were significantly negatively correlated with HPT concentrations. The present results confirmed that DAO is expressed in the epithelial cells of the intestinal mucosa in cattle, and that both the small and large intestines significantly contribute to blood DAO levels. Furthermore, DAO expression was reduced by enteritis.

To diagnose milk fever (MF) in dairy cows under clinical practice, measurement of ionized calcium concentrations in blood using point-of-care (POC) devices is required. However, blood sampling poses a significant financial burden on farmers and increases the workload of veterinarians who must visit farms to perform the examinations. The present study aimed to evaluate whether the onset of MF could be predicted using colostrum samples, which can be collected by farmers themselves. Total calcium (tCa) concentrations in colostrum were measured using a commercially available water quality test device. The results showed that cows treated for MF had significantly higher tCa concentrations in colostrum (2,141.1 ± 623.7 mg/L) compared to cows without MF (1,546.3 ± 494.4 mg/L) (P=0.006). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis suggested that measuring tCa concentration in colostrum could be used to predict the onset of MF. When the cut-off value was set at >2,000 mg/L, the sensitivity and specificity were 66.7% and 88.9%, respectively. Results from these findings, measuring tCa concentration in colostrum using a water quality test device offers a simple, inexpensive, and rapid method for predicting the onset of MF in dairy cows.

This study aimed to clarify the relationship between acute phase protein (APP) concentrations and serum Fe concentrations to determine whether serum iron (Fe) can be clinically applied as a substitute for APPs in cows. One hundred five Holstein–Friesian breed lactating dairy cows were enrolled in this study. Cows with inflammatory diseases were 16 subclinical, and 15 severe mastitis cows, in addition to 15 mild and 16 severe sole ulcer cows. The plasma haptoglobin (HPT), alpha-1 acid glycoprotein (AGP), SAA, serum Fe levels, and other biochemical parameters in the cows were measured. The two-sample t-tests and multiple logistic regression analysis were used to compare the control and inflammatory disease groups. ROC analysis was used to evaluate the ability to diagnose inflammation disease. From the results, the proposed diagnostic cutoff value for plasma SAA and serum Fe concentrations to identify dairy cows with inflammatory diseases based on analyses of ROC curves were set at > 3.65 mg/l and < 120.50 µg/dl, respectively. Therefore, instead of using expensive inflammatory markers to evaluate the inflammatory state at the first treatment day for inflammatory diseases in cow, it shows the useful for screening with serum Fe concentration that can be measured easily and inexpensively as alternative inflammatory biomarkers.

The present study aimed to clarify the alkalizing ability of 1.35% isotonic sodium bicarbonate solution (ISBS), which did not contain dextrose, compared with that of 1.35% isotonic bicarbonate sodium solution containing 4.03% dextrose (ISBD) in healthy calves. The calves were intravenously administered with 20.7 mL/kg of the solutions for 30 min as the volume required to correct base deficit of 10mM. ISBS increased the blood pH, HCO3–, and base excess from 7.44 ± 0.02, 29.6 ± 1.9 mM, and 5.3 ± 2.1 mM to 7.49 ± 0.02, 36.9 ± 2.3 mM, and 13.5 ± 2.6 mM respectively (P<0.05). These factors for the ISBD group increased from 7.41 ± 0.02, 29.0 ± 1.1 mM, and 4.5 ± 1.3 mM to 7.43 ± 0.02, 33.5 ± 1.9 mM, and 9.5 ± 1.7 mM (P<0.05), respectively. Furthermore, in the ISBD group, the relative plasma volume and blood glucose level increased while the K+ level decreased, which did not occur in the ISBS group. Therefore, the results revealed that ISBS had better alkalizing ability in calves than ISBD.

This study aimed to clarify the relationship between acute phase protein (APP) concentrations and serum Fe concentrations to determine whether serum iron (Fe) can be clinically applied as a substitute for APPs in cattle. One hundred and five Holstein-Friesian breed dairy cows were enrolled in this study. The cows were divided into forty-three healthy cows and sixty-two cows with inflammatory diseases. The plasma haptoglobin (HPT), alpha-1 acid glycoprotein (AGP), serum amyloid A (SAA), serum Fe levels, and other biochemical parameters in the cows were measured. From the results, HPT and AGP were significantly higher in inflammatory disease cattle compared with the control group, but no odds ratios were determined in the binomial analysis. Significant differences in SAA and serum Fe concentrations were observed between the inflammatory disease and control groups and odds ratios were determined in the binomial analysis. In addition, the cutoff value of Fe could be used to diagnose the inflammatory disease to the same degree as the cutoff value of SAA. The results suggested that serum Fe can be used as a substitute for APPs in the production of animal medicine.

Very few epidemiologic studies have verified the utility of the right paramedian abomasopexy (RPA) technique in cows with right abomasal disorders. This study aimed to investigate the outcomes and risk factors for non-survival in the herd within 30 days of surgery in cows with right abomasal disorders who underwent the RPA technique. Forty-seven Holstein cows with right abomasal disorders (25 with right abomasal displacement [RDA] and 22 with right abomasal volvulus [RAV]) were included. Twenty-two cows with RDA (22/25, 88.0%) and 10 cows with RAV (10/22, 45.5%) survived at 30 days post-surgery. Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that hyponatremia, hypokalemia, and the presence of abomasal volvulus were the major risk factors associated with non-survival.