BACKGROUND Among the various metabolic disturbances occurring in calves affected by neonatal diarrhea or ruminal acidosis, acidemia constitutes an important condition requiring specific therapy. Although various attempts have been made to estimate the degree of metabolic acidosis on the basis of clinical signs alone, some doubts have been raised regarding the accuracy and predictive value of th...

Abstract Feeding high-grain diets can result in reduced ruminal pH, inflammation of and other tissues, subacute acidosis. Vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP), a gut hormone with anti-inflammatory functions, could have beneficial role ruminants fed high-concentrate diets. To determine the effects VIP injection on dry matter intake, average daily gain, gain:feed, wether lambs (n=16; BW=68.5 ±...

Subacute ruminal acidosis can result in increased flow of fermentable substrates to the hindgut, which can negatively affect animal health and productivity. However, animal responses to increased hindgut fermentation independent of subacute ruminal acidosis have rarely been evaluated. This study determined the impact of abomasal dosage of a fermentable carbohydrate on animal performance and blo...

Thiamine deficiency causes a decrease in transketolase activity and an increase in thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP) effect on the erythrocytes. The objective of this experiment was to determine if ruminal acidosis alters erythrocytic transketolase enzyme activity as an indicator of thiamine level in feedlot cattle. A total of 65 feedlot cattle (1–2 years old) were fed either high concentrate diet (...

A mature dairy cow was transitioned from a high forage (100% forage) to a high-grain (79% grain) diet over seven days. Continuous ruminal pH recordings were utilized to diagnose the severity of ruminal acidosis. Additionally, blood and rumen papillae biopsies were collected to describe the structural and functional adaptations of the rumen epithelium. On the final day of the grain challenge, th...