Assessing the nutritional status of beef cattle: current practices and future prospects

Abstract

Accurate determination of nutritional and health status of animals is invaluable in modern animal
agriculture. Body weights and body condition scoring are the commonly used methods of assessing
nutritional status of animals. This paper discusses drawbacks these methods have and highlights the
benefits for using blood metabolites in assessing nutritional status of beef cattle. Blood metabolite
levels indicate the extent of metabolism of energy, proteins and other nutrients in animals. Glucose,
cholesterol, non-esterified fatty acids, protein, urea, creatinine, albumin, globulin, minerals, liver
enzymes and haematology can be used objectively, reliably and routinely to assess the nutritional
status of cattle. In Southern Africa, the use of these metabolites is rare due to lack of equipment for
blood analysis and the high cost of analyzing the blood parameters. However, use of high value Nguni
cattle in Southern Africa requires the use of blood parameters to accurately assess their nutritional
status. Several factors, such as physiological status of an animal, breed, nutrition, season and age
affect levels of blood metabolites. Combining body weights, body condition scores and blood
metabolites increase accuracy of assessing the nutritional state and welfare of beef cattle.