Dairy Health at Elanco

Everything starts with a healthy herd

Good Health is essential for sustainable dairy production. Herd health status is a key parameter to ensure productivity, efficiency, and profitability of dairy farms, with transition health a key factor.

60 days prior to calving until 30 days after calving (The Vital 90™ Days), is a time of great risk and vulnerability for every cow in your herd. During The Vital 90™ Days, cows' immune systems are weakened, opening the door to disorders such as metritis, and retained placentas which can compromise their long-term wellbeing and productivity potential. They also experience a period of negative energy balance increasing the risk of ketosis and associated diseases (displaced abomasum, ovarian dysfunction).

Elanco dairy solutions to tackle challenges during The Vital 90™ Days period include diagnostics, monitoring tools, and educational materials, as well as products to treat or reduce the incidence of some related diseases, such as ketosis. These solutions should be part of a holistic approach based on a partnership between the veterinary surgeon and farmer.

There are several challenges that can have a significant impact on herd health, fertility and productivity. Find out more.

Elanco's dairy products:

: Approximately 75% of disease in dairy cows typically happens in the first month after calving1, with around half of dairy cows experiencing some sort of disease during the transition period^2,3. Negative energy balance occurs around calving, when there is a reduction in feed intake at a time when demand for energy for late foetal growth and milk production increases rapidly. When this negative energy gap becomes excessive, the cow is at risk of developing ketosis: the cow breaks down her own body fat to fill this widened energy gap, resulting in ketones building up in blood, milk and urine. In excess these ketones have negative consequences on the health, productivity and fertility of cows.

Cows at risk of ketosis are those that are SOFT:

Sick - any animals who have been lame or sick in their dry period⁴

Old - with lactation 3 and above^5,6

Fat - animals with Body Condition Score ≥3.5^7,8

Twin - bearing⁹

To optimise the herd’s potential through improving transition management, identify the at risk cows, and provide targeted treatment with a Kexxtone bolus (Kexxtone is a prescription only (POM-V) medicine and must be prescribed by a vet). Find out more about the benefits of targeted treatment of Kexxtone on dairy health, productivity and fertility.

Major Advances in Disease Prevention in Dairy Cattle, S J LeBlanc, K D Lissemore, D F Kelton, T F Duffield, K E Leslie. American Dairy Science Association 2006.
LeBlanc, S., 2010. Monitoring metabolic health of dairy cattle in the transition period. Journal of Reproduction and Development 56 (Suppl), S29–S35.
Santos et al, Proc. 2013 Dairy Cattle Reproduction Council Conference, Indianapolis, IN, p 32-48.
Mulligan, O.Grady, Rice, Doherty 2006. A herd health approach to dairy cow nutrition and production diseases of the transition cow. Anim. Repr. Sci. 96:331-353.
Heringstad, Chang, Gianola, Klemetsdal 2005. Genetic analysis of clinical mastitis, milk fever, ketosis and retained placenta in three lactations of Norwegian Red cows. J. Dairy Sci. 88:3273-3281.
Rajala-Schultz, Grahn, McCulloch 1999. Effect of milk fever, ketosis and lameness on milk yield of dairy cows. J. Dairy Sci. 82:288-294.
Gillund, Reksen, Grahn, Karlberg 2001. Body condition related to ketosis and reproductive performance in Norwegian dairy cows. J. Dairy Sci. 84:1390-1396.
Duffield 2000. Subclinical ketosis in lactating dairy cattle. Vet. Clin. North Am. Food Anim. Pract. 16:231-253
Fricke 2001. Review: Twinning in Dairy Cattle. Prof. Anim. Sci. 17:61-67.

Dairy Health at Elanco

Ketosis