AHEAD IN ANIMAL HEALTH
Reference intervals of trace elements and other clinical-chemical parameters of newborn calves J. Muskens1, S. van der Drift1, R. Grotentraast1 and G. Counotte1 1 Royal GD, Arnsbergstraat 7, 7418 EZ Deventer, The Netherlands
Introduction Reference intervals and cut-off values for clinical-chemical parameters in serum are usually based on results from adult cows. Specific reference values for young calves are, however, important to evaluate management interventions to improve calf vitality or health status and to advice on proper treatment and preventive measures. The aim of this study was to investigate concentrations of the trace elements, vitamin E and other clinical chemical parameters in serum of calves of 1 to 6 days old and to calculate reference intervals for these parameters for newborn calves. Results were compared with the reference and clinical decision values of adult cattle as used by GD Animal Health. Materials and Methods
Table 1. Concentrations of clinical chemical parameters in serum of calves of 1-6 days old, calculated reference intervals for calves, and reference values/clinical decision values for adult dairy cattle as used by GD.
Serum samples of 117 calves with the age of 1-6 days from 16 Dutch dairy herds were tested. The majority of the calves Parameter Units N Average was 2-5 days old. Farms were chosen and sampled by their own veterinarian but not specifically selected for calf health Vitamin E µmol/L 117 4.6 Zinc µmol/L 117 22.7 problems. Samples were analysed in the routine laboratory Copper µmol/L 117 8.6 of GD for copper, zinc, selenium and iodine using inductively Selenium µmol/L 117 0.5 coupled plasma mass spectrometry and for Vitamin E using Iodine µmol/L 117 2.4 high-performance liquid chromatography. Concentrations of µmol/L 90 21.3 iron, urea, phosphorus, GLDH and gGT in serum were analyzed Iron Urea mmol/L 89 4.7 using commercial test kits on a multi-analyzer (UniCel DxC Phosphorus mmol/L 90 2.9 600 Synchron Clinical System, Beckman Coulter). In total, GLDH U/L 90 29.6 serum samples were tested for 39 parameters, of which only gGT U/L 87 496 a selection is shown in this abstract. The number of tested Calculated with Reference Value Advisor (Geffre et al., 2011) samples per parameter varied from 89-117, which depended * clinical decision value (as used by GD) on the amount of serum material available for analysis. Of reference values (as used by GD) every parameter the average, SD, median and the ranges between 25th and 75th and were calculated with Statistix. Conclusions Reference intervals for concentrations of clinical chemical parameters were calculated using the Reference Value Advisor Reference values for several clinical-chemical parameters in serum of young calves (Geffre et al., 2011). differ from reference values for adult cows Results underlining the importance of knowledge on Descriptive statistics and reference intervals for the age of tested animals when interpreting concentrations of clinical chemical parameters in serum of results of clinical-chemical blood tests. young calves are shown in Table 1.The reference interval of Vitamin E concentrations were low in Vitamin E is large (19 µmol/L), but the median value is low young calves which indicate that vitamin E (2.9 µmol/L). The differences between the calves can be uptake from colostrum may not have been explained partially by the large differences in colostrum (IgG) optimal. Further research should aim at the uptake. Concentrations of gGT in serum of calves were high assessment of specific clinical decision values (interval 52-1777 U/L) when compared to values of adult for clinical chemical parameters in young cattle (0-34 U/L). calves to evaluate management interventions to optimize calf health.
SD
Median
5.0 8.39 2.21 0.11 1.43 19.6 2.1 0.7 41.9 396
2.9 22.1 8.3 0.5 2.0 15.0 4.0 2.7 14.1 373
25th and 75th percentiles 1.1-5.9 16.7-27.3 7.0-10.2 0.4-0.6 1.4-2.8 7.0-33.3 3.1-6.1 2.5-3.2 9.0-27.2 221-671
Reference interval1 0.0-18,7 10-43 5-14 0.2-0.7 0.8-6.9 2.5-79.4 2.0-9.7 2.1-5.4 6-156 52-1777
Values of adult cows 7.4-25* 10-35* 10-23.5* 0.5-3.8* 0.4-5.5* 14-45** 3.3-6.6** 1.1-2.4** 0-22** 0-34**
1
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References Geffre, A., Concordet, D., Braun, J.P., Trumel, C. 2011. Reference Value Advisor: a new freeware set of macroinstructions to calculate reference intervals with Microsoft Excel. Vet. Clin. Pathol. 40(1): 107–112.
j.muskens@gdanimalhealth.com www.gdanimalhealth.com
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