Nuclear magnetic resonance-based serum metabolic profiling of dairy cows with footrot

Footrot is a debilitating and contagious disease in dairy cows, caused by the Gram-negative anaerobe Dichelobacter nodosus. ¹H-NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance)-based metabolomics has been previously used to understand the pathology and etiology of several diseases. The objective of this study was to characterize serum from dairy cows with footrot (n=10) using ¹H-NMR-based metabolomics and chemometric analyses. ¹H-NMR spectroscopy with multivariate pattern recognition (principal component analysis and orthogonal partial least-squares discriminant analysis) was performed to identify biomarkers in cows with footrot (F) and healthy controls (C). ¹H-NMR analysis facilitated the identification of 21 metabolites. Among these metabolites, 4 metabolites were higher and 17 metabolites were lower in the F group than in the C group. The serum levels of 5 metabolites were significantly different (P<0.05) between the two groups. The results revealed that cows with footrot have altered carbohydrate, amino acid, lipid and energy metabolic pathways. Metabolomic approaches are a clinically useful diagnostic tool for understanding the biochemical alterations and mechanisms of several diseases.