[Liver diseases of fattening bulls]

The authors report on occurrence, causes and diagnostics of liver affections observed in fattening bulls in Ukrainia between 1982 and 1988. For this purpose, 2747 bulls in 10 fattening plants had been controlled clinically once during the last month of their final fattening period (lasting, according to the feeding schedule, from the 4th until the 12th, or from the 6th until the 18th month of life), and 1318 of them were controlled for eventual hepatic lesions at slaughter. The authors found an increase in liver affections during the final fattening period. The type of lesion found preferentially in the different fattening plants showed a certain correlation with feeding used in these: The prevalence of liver lesions (i.e. in 87.2% of the animals controlled) were found in fattening bulls fed cereal branstraw-pellets; among these, liver abscesses were most frequent (i.e. 55.2% of all lesions observed in this group). Steatosis of the liver was prevalent in fattening bulls receiving eating offalls (i.e. 82.7% of all lesions found in that group), whereas liver cirrhosis was prevalent in fattening bulls fed with sugar beet chips-silage. In Holstein-bulls, liver lesions were about double as frequent as in Fleckvieh-bulls (i.e. 37.3 and 16.7% of the livers controlled were found involved, respectively). Diagnostical value of several clinical parameters controlled is discussed (i.e. size and sensitivity of liver percussion field, activity of SDH, LDH, AST and ALT in serum, serum concentration of vitamin A, D3-25 and E, concentration of Vitamin A in liver, and concentration of cholic acids and of their glucoconjugates in bile).