Why use Metabolic Profiling?

Why would I want to use metabolic profiling on my farm?

• Assess nutritional status of feeding group of herd. Ration evaluation is the cornerstone of herd nutritional assessment, but can be fraught with uncertainty and difficulty in obtaining true measure of dry matter or nutrient intake. Metabolic profiling, using specific parameters known to be responsive to dietary intake, can be used to complement dietary evaluation of current feeding program adequacy or a response to a feeding program change.
• Identify disease conditions early. Metabolic profiling using defined analytes (beta-hydroxybutyrate [BHB], calcium [Ca], magnesium [Mg], rumen pH) can be used to assess prevalence of various subclinical metabolic diseases (ketosis, hypocalcemia, hypomagnesemia, subacute rumimnal acidosis [SARA], respectively) in the absence of obvious clinical disease problems.
• Identify potential risk for disease problems. Specific blood analytes that are either high or low relative to defined reference or cut point values prior to calving or immediately postpartum can predict potential for increased risk of experiencing specific or collective periparturient disease events.
• Survey for potential causes of disease problems. Broad-based metabolic profiling can be used as a screening tool to direct the focus of a herd investigation. Profile results need to be interpreted relative to diet-specific problems as well as management and other factos that may secondarily alter animal response to diet.