Performance evaluation of a newly designed on-farm blood testing system for determining blood non-esterified fatty acid and β-hydroxybutyrate concentrations in dairy cows

The objective of this study was to evaluate a newly designed on-farm blood testing system (OFBTS) for monitoring blood concentrations of non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) and β-hydroxybutyrate (BHBA) in dairy cows. Blood samples from 230 Holstein dairy cows between −86 and 343 days in milk were collected. A drop of whole blood was used to determine NEFA and BHBA using the OFBTS. Plasma from the remaining blood was used to determine both analytes using a commercial kit (gold standard). In the repeatability of the OFBTS, the intra-assay CV for NEFA and BHBA were 1.3% and 4.5%, and the inter-assay CV were 1.8% and 2.9%, respectively. The slope and coefficient of determination of OFBTS analysis of NEFA compared to the gold standard were 0.92 and 0.94. Those for BHBA were 0.94 and 0.98. Mean of the difference between the gold standard laboratory assays and OFBTS of NEFA and BHBA were 0.021 and 0.019, respectively. However, the bias became substantial for NEFA in the higher concentration ranges (>1.2 mEq/L). The sensitivity and specificity of NEFA were 93.2% and 99.4% at a cutpoint of 0.4 mEq/L, and 87.9% and 100% at 0.6 mEq/L. Those of BHBA were 86.2% and 99.0% at a cutpoint of 1.0 mM, and 94.7% and 99.5% at 1.2 mM. The reaction time for the NEFA to reach 0.6 mEq/L was 7 min. The BHBA reaction reached 1.2 mM within 2 min. In conclusion, the OFBTS has excellent performance for evaluating blood NEFA or BHBA concentrations. •We developed an on-farm NEFA and BHBA assay system for the first time.•Correlation, sensitivity and specificity of this system were fine for practical uses.•The system can evaluate a cow's energy status more rapidly than conventional methods.