Determinação de proteína C reativa associada a métodos complementares no diagnóstico da diarreia em bezerros
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Diarrhea is a condition of multifactorial origin in which there is an increase in the amount or frequency of defecation. In addition, it is a frequent problem in dairy cattle farming and participates significantly in the calf mortality rate. Thus, in the present study, the objective of this study was to evaluate the technique of measuring C-reactive protein in association with complementary methods, to identify animals with diarrhea in the clinical routine early. At the same time, we sought to verify the applicability of abdominal ultrasonography in healthy and diarrheal calves and to correlate it with the intravascular volume status of these animals. For this, we evaluated 20 calves, between males and females, of the Girolando breed, in different blood grades, from the Dairy Cattle sector of Fazenda Varginha, of the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Minas Gerais – IFMG Campus Bambuí. We used hematological parameters of hematocrit and qualitative determination of C-reactive protein, stool score, clinical signs score, ultrasonography of the caudal vena cava and aorta artery, and urine pH. The evaluations took place in the first week of life, with repetition in the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 10th, and 12th weeks, when they reached the age of 84 days. The time when there were more cases of diarrhea was week 7 (45% - 9/20), followed by week 6 (40% - 8/20), weeks 2 and 4 (35% - 7/20), week 5 (33% - 6/18), weeks 8 and 10 (32% - 6/20), week 1 (20% - 4/20) and, finally, week 12 (16% - 3/19), emphasizing that the cases diagnosed were only mild diarrhea, observed by the fecal score values obtained, without any change in the clinical status of the animal, an aspect demonstrated by the values of the clinical score. The urine pH averages were slightly lower than those described for healthy calves. In abdominal ultrasonography, a technique that proved possible to apply, a negative correlation was observed between the diameters of the abdominal vena cava and aorta artery, which, although not significant, revealed that as hematocrit decreases, the diameter of vascular structures increases. The agreement between the tests made it possible to identify that the clinical signs score and urine pH do not replace the stool score, as well as C-reactive protein, which proved to be inefficient in the early detection of the inflammatory process caused by diarrhea, with no significant difference at the times of greater occurrence of the disease. Thus, it was observed that it was impossible to identify CRP as an early method for diagnosing diarrhea in calves. The mild cases of this disease did not allow evident changes in the clinical status of the animals.
