The value of BoviLab is not only the easily accessible blood tests and quick results, but also the advice the veterinarian can give on the spot. The farmer can immediately put it into practice. By testing frequently and monitoring the results, curative treatments shift to preventive treatments.
Knowing the blood values of both fresh and dry cows within minutes allows you to quickly intervene in sick cows and improve farm management. That’s what BoviLab wants to capitalize on.
BoviLab is a additional tool to monitor and improve long-term management on dairy farms. With the information from BoviLab you can have some indication of the course of the transition period. The big benefit is that you can test on the farm and have the results after 7 minutes. So the farmer does not have to send blood samples to a laboratory and wait days for a result. With a sick cow, you often don’t even have that much time.
Blood samples are measured for calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA’s) and urea. These values can be used to quickly determine whether cows are suffering from energy nutrition deficiency (ketosis) or calcium (milk fever) deficiency, for example. These two diseases are common during the transition period. Monitoring blood values and disorders is done on a self-directed basis. Dairy veterinarian Mark van Kleef normally examines blood from five dry cows and three fresh ones. Van Kleef is a co-distributor of BoviLab. Analyzing eight blood samples takes an hour. Sometimes it is useful to bring the blood samples to the veterinarian’s office and analyze them there.
