Association of Peri-partum Blood Energy Metabolites with Post-partum Puerperal Metritis in Crossbred Cows

Present study estimated certain blood energy metabolites during peri-partum period in crossbred cows that did and did not develop post-partum puerperal metritis (PM) and analyzed their association with ensuing PM. Glucose, total-cholesterol, urea-nitrogen (PUN), non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) and β-hydroxybutyrate (BHBA) concentrations were estimated in blood plasma samples collected from pluriparous cows (n = 20) at 2 (wk-2) and 1 week (wk-1) before expected date of calving, on d + 1, d + 7 and d + 14 after calving. The PM cows had significantly lower glucose but higher BHBA than normal cows between d + 1 and d + 14. Between wk-2 to d + 14, PM cows had significantly lower total-cholesterol but higher NEFA and NEFA:total-cholesterol ratio than healthy cows. Moreover, PUN:BHBA ratio was significantly lower in PM cows than normal cows on d + 14. Receiver-operating characteristic analysis indicated that NEFA:total-cholesterol ratio had higher area under curve (AUC) at wk-2 (AUC = 0.91) and wk-1 (AUC = 0.96) than other metabolites. However, as compared to other metabolites, AUC was higher on d + 1 (AUC = 0.92) and on d + 7 (AUC = 0.98) for NEFA and on d + 14 (AUC = 1.0) for BHBA. Estimated risk ratio values indicated that NEFA:total-cholesterol ratio at wk-2 and wk-1 were significantly associated with 8.55 times higher risk of PM than other metabolites. Moreover, NEFA, BHBA and NEFA:total-cholesterol values were associated with >8.55 times higher risk of PM during post-partum period. Thus, it may be concluded that cows, which developed PM suffered with negative energy balance around parturition. Ratio of NEFA: total-cholesterol at wk-2 and wk-1 could be helpful for early identification of PM with higher accuracy in crossbred cows. © 2016, The National Academy of Sciences, India.