New insights into body condition score and its association with fatty liver in Holstein dairy cows

The aim of this study was to estimate the association between body condition and fatty liver in high-yielding dairy cows. One hundred dry Holstein cows were selected. After dividing cows into groups according to fatty liver degree, it was shown that only cows with severe fatty liver were obese during the dry period and that 76.47% of cows from this group had marked condition loss from the dry period to puerperium, 47.06% from dry period to month 2 of lactation and 23.53% from puerperium to month 2 of lactation. These indicate that in cows with severe fatty liver lipomobilisation is intensive and starts around calving, before milk production enhacement. Our results indicate a strong association between body condition and fatty liver in cows, which can be estimated only when body condition is analyzed in details. Besides, our results clearly indicate that body condition is not the only etiological factor that leads to fatty liver in dairy cows.