Oral and Poster Abstracts

correlations between Occurrence of ocular squamous cell carcinoma
and sex and any clinical problems in the studied animals. Cattle with
unpigmented or partly pigmented eyelids were at most risk.
Key words: bovine ocular squamous cell carcinoma, Holstein cattle,
Iran
1261 Serum Cardiac Troponin I Concentrations as a Diagnostic
Aid of Pericarditis in Cattle
H. Guyot 1 , A. Sartelet 1 , K. Leidinger 2 , S. Vandeputte 1 , F. Rollin 1 ,
H. Amory 1 , C. Sandersen 1
1
University of Liege - Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of
Clinical Sciences, Liege, Belgium
2
Bicontrol, Department of Clinical Sciences, Ingelheim am Rhein,
Germany
Cardiac troponin I (cTnI), a specific marker of myocardial damage,
is widely used in the man and of increasing importance in veterinary
medicine. It is not commonly used in cattle practice although it
might be useful as a diagnostic aid of pericarditis. Pericarditis is a
common complication of traumatic reticuloperitonitis in cattle but
clinical signs are non-specific and diagnostic aids are not readily
available in field conditions. The aim of the study is to test the
usefulness of cTnI as a blood marker of pericarditis in cattle.
Nineteen cows of various breeds with clinical signs of pericarditis
were compared to a control group composed of 8 age and breedmatched
cows. Serum cTnI levels were measured in all cows by a
direct chemiluminescence sandwich-immunoassay using one
polyclonal goat-anti cTnI and two monoclonal mouse anti-TnI antibodies
(ADVIA Centaur TnI-Ultra-Test, Biocontrol, Ingelheim,
Germany). Pericarditis was confirmed by typical echocardiographic
images and/or post-mortem examination. Statistical analysis was
performed using non-parametric Mann-Whitney Wilcoxon test.
Cardiac TnI levels of control group cows were below 0.04 ng/mL.
Five of the pericarditis-affected cows had cTnI levels of 0.04 ng/mL
or below. Fourteen pericarditis-affected cows had serum cTnI levels
from 0.06 to 5.10 ng/mL. The sensitivity of the optimal cut-off value
of 0.04 ng/mL was 74% (95% C.I., 54% to 93%), specificity 100%
(95% C.I., 100% to 100%), positive predictive value 100% (95%
C.I., 100% to 100%), negative predictive value 62% (95% C.I., 35%
to 88%). The cTnI blood concentration was significantly higher
(p35 L), the VWP was
maximum 90 days and cows were synchronized using the PGF2· or
the OvSynch-protocol. After excluding the slaughtered animals and
those, who did not become pregnant during the time of the
experiment, 76 (G: A) and 83 (G: B) animals were evaluated.
Conception rate of the first service (CR) was 31.6% in G: A and
38.6% in G: B. At the same time, in SG II and IV it was 14.8% and
45.8% for G:A and 42.8% and 50% for G: B. According to the
applied different VWP, the duration until first AI was longer for
G:B (94.9 days) than for G:A (88.5 days), while the calving to
conception interval (CCI) became shorter for G: B (156.4 days) than
for G: A (168.2 days). Also less services per conception and total
number of inseminations were needed for G: B (2.58 and 212) than
for G: A (2.98 and 220), respectively, although G: B required more
costs for hormonal treatments. In general, there was a 12-day
difference in the CCI, but none of the results showed any significant
differences. As conclusion, US turned out to be a useful tool in
reproductive management of large dairy herds because by using it,
we can increase the accuracy of diagnoses. These results may
suggest that by setting up individual VWP-s based on the actual
daily milk yield and using different synchronization protocols, CCI
can be reduced and less services are required. However, further
studies are necessary to confirm the benefit of extended VWP.
1265 Reduced Risk of BCV and BRSV Infections in Swedish
Organic Dairy Herds
M. R. Bidokhti, M. Travén, N. Fall, U. Emanuelson, S. Alenius
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Division of Ruminant
Medicine and Veterinary Epidemiology, Department of Clinical
Science, Uppsala, Sweden
Bovine coronavirus (BCV) and bovine respiratory syncytial virus
(BRSV) infections are spread in cattle herds worldwide. When
introduced in to a susceptible herd, both infections cause respiratory
disease. BCV is also associated with diarrhea in both calves and
adult cattle. The purpose of this study was to investigate the
antibody prevalence of BCV and BRSV in dairy herds in an area of
Sweden. Specific aims were to compare the prevalence of these
infections in organic and conventional herds and to study the
Miscellaneous 313