{"id":3141,"date":"2017-11-13T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-13T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deltavit.com\/actualite\/subclinical-hypocalcaemia-or-the-silent-form-of-milk-fever\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T11:50:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T09:50:13","slug":"subclinical-hypocalcaemia-or-the-silent-form-of-milk-fever","status":"publish","type":"actualite","link":"https:\/\/www.deltavit.com\/en\/news\/subclinical-hypocalcaemia-or-the-silent-form-of-milk-fever\/","title":{"rendered":"Subclinical hypocalcaemia or the silent form of milk fever"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/div>\n<div id=\"block-hero-block_885dafa3f30c20db5714b5dc2f828c95\" class=\"container-fluid page_header_banner_part  block-hero\"  style=\"background: url(https:\/\/www.deltavit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/fond-blog.png) no-repeat center \/ cover;\" >\n    <div class=\"container\">\n        <div class=\"row\">\n            <div class=\"col-12\">\n                <nav aria-label=\"breadcrumbs\" class=\"rank-math-breadcrumb\"><p><span class=\"last\">Home<\/span><\/p><\/nav>            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n        <div class=\"row justify-content-center\">\n            <div class=\"col-12 col-md-8 text-center\">\n                \n                <h1>Subclinical hypocalcaemia or the silent form of milk fever<\/h1>\n                            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"container\">\n<h2>What is subclinical hypocalcaemia?<\/h2>\n<p>Subclinical hypocalcaemia is the silent, non-symptomatic form of milk fever. It is characterised by a fall in calcaemia (calcium levels in the blood) below 80 mg\/l. The difficulty lies in identifying this disease, which has no visible signs.  <\/p>\n<p>The number of cows affected is huge. Up to 72% of cows in 4th lactation are affected. However, there are differences depending on the number of lactations. As a recent study (Mullimann, 2017) shows, primiparous cows are generally less impacted, with 16% of cows appearing to be affected by subclinical hypocalcaemia. But this prevalence increases rapidly with the number of lactations. 52% of cows in 2nd lactation are affected and almost 72% of cows in 4th lactation. This simply means that from the second calf onwards, more than half of French dairy cows are affected!      <\/p>\n<p>If we look a little further afield, Germany and the USA don&#8217;t seem to be outdone. According to studies, the prevalence of this disorder is between 23% and 55% of cows in Germany and between 41% and 50% in the USA. <\/p>\n<p><em>Table 1: increase in the frequency of early lactation disorders linked to hypocalcaemia<\/em><\/p>\n<h2>The consequences of hypocalcaemia for cows<\/h2>\n<p>Hypocalcaemia in itself does not cause any clinical signs, but it does have some negative consequences: reduced appetite, stress, lower production and even reproductive problems. In the study published by Nydam and Cornell, success rate at 1st artificial insemination is 63% for the control group and falls to 31% for cows with hypocalcaemia (&lt;80 mg\/l).<br \/>Hypocalcaemia is now well known to be a factor in the onset of early lactation problems.  <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>It increases the risk of mastitis by a factor of 8 and the risk of ketosis by a factor of 5.5. Researchers have also shown that hypocalcaemia has an impact on metritis, retained placenta, displaced abomasum and difficult calving (see Table 1).<br \/>This is linked to the negative impact of hypocalcaemia on muscle tone and immunity. Some vets consider that subclinical hypocalcaemia is 4 times more costly than overt milk fever (GTV 2017).   <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>For breeders wishing to reduce the risk of hypocalcaemia, here are a few tips. Firstly, pay attention to the body condition of the cows: around 3 at dry up, no recovery during the dry period.<br \/>The breeder must also work on a ration for dry cows with a negative anion-cation balance or at least as close to zero as possible. In practice, a negative anion-cation balance is difficult to achieve.   <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Be careful with the forages used: some, such as grass silage and other clover-rich hay, produce a high anion-cation balance. For these rations, consider using specific minerals or nutrients with a very negative anion-cation balance (below -3000 mEq)<br \/>To protect at-risk cows, breeders can also provide an oral dose of calcium from the first signs of calving: liquid calcium, boluses, etc. In this case, take care to distribute 50 g of calcium per application, in a highly assimilable form (formate, chloride, acetate, pidolate). Here is the profile of the ideal candidate: &gt; 3 lactations, high producer, history of milk fever or difficult last calving.   <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Phosphorus is also sometimes added to these solutions, as hypophosphataemia often goes hand in hand with hypocalcaemia. Calcium can also be combined with vitamin D3, which facilitates calcium absorption. <\/p>\n<p><em>Table 2: prevent subclinical hypocalcaemia (Mulligan et al., 2006)<\/em><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is subclinical hypocalcaemia? Subclinical hypocalcaemia is the silent, non-symptomatic form of milk fever. It is characterised by a fall in calcaemia (calcium levels in the blood) below 80 mg\/l. The difficulty lies in identifying this disease, which has no visible signs. The number of cows affected is huge. Up to 72% of cows in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":3369,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"besoin":[56],"enjeux":[],"espece":[110],"news_type":[171,173],"class_list":["post-3141","actualite","type-actualite","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","besoin-well-being","espece-ruminants-en","news_type-technical-advice","news_type-scientific-publications"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltavit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/actualite\/3141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltavit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/actualite"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltavit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/actualite"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltavit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/actualite\/3141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3142,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltavit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/actualite\/3141\/revisions\/3142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltavit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltavit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"besoin","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltavit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/besoin?post=3141"},{"taxonomy":"enjeux","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltavit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/enjeux?post=3141"},{"taxonomy":"espece","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltavit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/espece?post=3141"},{"taxonomy":"news_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltavit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_type?post=3141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}