Serum lipolysaccharide concentrations of dairy cows in pre- and postpartum period and with subclinical laminitis

The aim of this study was to compare the LPS blood concentrations and metabolic status in the peripartum period and in the late lactation phase in dairy cows. In addition, LPS concentrations in animals with subclinical laminitis were compared with those without claw lesions. Blood sampling was carried out on five farms in Central and Eastern Slovakia on Holstein-Friesian dairy cows. Samples were taken from 79 animals. On four farms, clinically healthy animals were sampled and divided into three groups of 5-6 dairy cows each: dairy cows between 10-20 days before calving (Group I), dairy cows 10-20 days after calving (Group II), and dairy cows 4 months after calving (Group III). Within these groups, LPS, BHB, and NEFA concentrations were determined. Five dairy cows with subclinical laminitis and five healthy cows were sampled to determine serum LPS concentrations. LPS were determined using commercial 96-well ELISA kits. BHB and NEFA concentrations (mmol/l) were determined using an automated biochemical analyzer Alizé (Lisabio, Pouilly-en-Aixois, France. Statistical analysis was carried out by a one-factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) with the post hoc Bonferroni test. One-factorial ANOVA did not show significant effect of the lactation period on serum lipopolysaccharides in the study. In addition, the mean LPS concentration in the control dairy cows and cows with subclinical laminitis was 0.048 ng/ml and 0.065 ng/ml, respectively. However, the differences among the groups were not significant.BHB concentrations were within the physiological range in all the groups. In contrast, the cows of the early lactation group showed the highest concentrations of non-esterified fatty acids. In conclusion, elevated NEFA in the pos-tcalving period was not associated with significant shift in serum LPS concentrations, nor did as well the cows with subclinical laminitis did show a strong increase in LPS. A detection of higher LPS concentrations in dairy cows is probably only expected in animals suffering from severe inflammatory diseases, such as ruminitis, enteritis, mastitis, metritis, etc.