STUDIES INTO CORRELATIONS BETWEEN FEEDING-RELATED METABOLIC DISORDERS AND DAMAGE TO UDDER HEALTH OF DAIRY-CATTLE

Practice-related investigations were conducted in an attempt to produce evidence to the existence of a relationship between feeding-related metabolic disorders, on the one hand, and damage to udder health, on the other. Blood, urine, and milk parameters were obtained for that purpose from 140 lactating cows, over a period from 21 days before to 60 days after calving. The data material thus compiled was comprehensive and was further processed by regression analysis. Several correlations were secured with significance, for example, between urea leve and bacterial colonisation of the udder or between ketone bodies, on the one hand, and conductivity as well as pathogen occurrence in milk, on the other. Hence, metabolism-related udder damage is of relevance, though questions still remain unanswered with regard to its pathogenesis.