Vol. 8, Issue 5 (2019)

Author(s):
K Sethy, V Dhaigude, RD Mukherjee, P Dwibedy, M Nayak, and P Priyadarshinee

Abstract:
Milk fever is a metabolic disease of cows occurring around the time of parturition, generally within 48 hr after calving, but also occurs several weeks before or after calving. A decreased level of blood calcium is responsible for milk fever in transition cows. This is due to imbalance between calcium output in the colostrums and intake of calcium through feed. A cow producing 10 kg of colostrums will loose around 23g of calcium in single milking. This is about nine times as much as calcium present in the entire plasma calcium pool of the cow. The feedstuffs high in calcium and potassium can increase the occurrence of milk fever by reducing the mobilisation of calcium from the bones. Feeding anionic salt or manipulating the dietary cation and anion difference of the diet has become a common approach for maintaining calcium homeostasis in transition cows.